Thomas G. Leslie

Conductor Thomas G. Leslie is the longtime Director of Wind Band Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and has led university bands there to national and international prominence. He has amassed a substantial recording catalog. Leslie grew up in Iowa. His family was musical; a grandmother was a professor at Chicago's American Conservatory of Music, and his mother attended the conservatory and won a national competition that brought the prize of a trip to Hollywood to perform in film scenes containing music. She continued to work as a freelance musician but put her musical career on hiatus when Leslie was born. Leslie was enrolled in French horn lessons from age eight and was frequently taken to Chicago for symphonic, operatic, and ballet performances. He attended the University of Iowa, where his family pressured him to study dentistry, but after he earned only a C+ in a biology class, they relented. He graduated in 1973 with a music education degree. He went on for a master's degree at Indiana State University. After finishing school, he worked as a high school band director in Iowa, Indiana, and Arizona, leading the groups he conducted to various state and national honors. In 1985, Leslie joined the faculty at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Leading various band ensembles at the school, he earned the title of Director of the Division of Wind Band Studies and Professor of Conducting. He made his recording debut with the UNLV Wind Orchestra in 1998 with the album It Takes a Village and has gone on to record more than 20 albums with the group. His work with the UNLV Wind Orchestra is notable for its commitment to commissioning new works, which have appeared on such albums as 4 Flew Over the Hornet's Nest. The UNLV Wind Orchestra won the American Prize for Best American Collegiate Wind Ensemble for 2021. The group recorded several albums for the Klavier Records label but moved to Navona Records for the 2023 album Joe's Tango: Concerto for Trombone and Other Works, featuring trombonist Joseph Alessi in a jazz concerto by Chick Corea.
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