King's Birthday Honours 2023 - Ronald Thomas AM
Kings’s Birthday Honours List :
MEMBER (AM) IN THE GENERAL DIVISION OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA
Mr Ronald Keith Thomas, WA
For significant service to the performing arts, particularly through music
Link to the official announcement on His Excellency the Governor General’s website
King's Birthday 2023 Honours List
246 appointments as Members of the Order (surnames A-L, M-Z)
Search for entry Ronald Keith Thomas
Also, the link to the Government House - Western Australian Recipients list :
We asked Ronald how he felt about receiving a Member of the Order of Australia- AM, as part of the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours / Celebrations :
“
I was completely surprised and amazed, and had to walk around the room a few times and re-read it.It is a great honour to receive it, and I am excited to be able to tell my daughters, and those close to me.
I have been playing the violin for 80 years and still learning!!
I have worked very hard all my life at the music I love, and have been lucky to have lived in this time period, working with many fine musicians who have influenced me in positive ways.
”
Ronald Thomas :
The Wheatbelt’s own International Violin Virtuoso / Conductor
Performed with the Melbourne Symphony at 17.
Winner of the Carl Flesch International Violin Competition at 21.
Long and distinguished career as an International Soloist and Conductor.
Guest Concertmaster - London Symphony Orchestra
Guest Concertmaster - London Philharmonic Orchestra
Artistic Director of the Australian Opera and the Ballet Orchestra (now Opera Australia, Sydney)
Leader of the Sydney String Quartet
Guest lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium
WASO Conductor
How did a boy from the Western Australian bush become one of the world’s greatest violinists by age 21?
Born on a farm in WA’s wheatbelt, Ronald took violin lessons from his father Ivan from the age of 4. Ronald’s mother was a talented pianist, and Ivan had been a student of the great violin pedagogue Joseph Nowotny, who had moved to Perth in 1906. Nowotny studied at the Vienna Conservitoire, and had been Concertmaster of the Montreux-Vevey Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland.
Ivan Thomas and another more famous student of Nowotny’s Albert Lynch, had both played for the silent movies in Perth in the early years of cinema. Ivan had used his earnings to buy a farm – hence how you can have a great violinist sitting on a farm out in Kulin, passing on his mastery of the instrument to his young son Ronald.
A link to the ABC’s 2019 article on Ronald by David Weber, entitled :
“Violinist Ronald Thomas played for The Beatles and on Hollywood movies like Star Wars before coming home”, ABC 22 Dec 2019
At 18 Ronald left to study in London, and later in Switzerland with the great Max Rostal. In Switzerland Ronald crossed paths with many musical greats, including another young musician that went onto conquer the world on piano - Martha Argerich.
On returning to London, Ronald entered and won the Carl Flesch International Violin Competition at just 21-years-of-age (the musical equivalent of the “Olympic Gold Medal for Violin”).
Following a recital at Wigmore Hall in London, he was offered concerto engagements with the Royal Philharmonic, Birmingham and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras. He began broadcasting for the BBC and was a concerto soloist at the first night of the BBC Promenade Concert.
London, The Beatles & Star Wars ++
In 1976 he became concertmaster, then Musical Director of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta where for ten years he gave 950 concerts, (250 of which he conducted), solo concerts, broadcasts and recordings.
In the 1980s he was invited by Sir George Solti to be guest concertmaster for an Anniversary Series of Concerts by the London Philharmonic Orchestra appearing at the Edinburgh Festival and the Royal Festival Hall in London.
During his time in London Ronald also worked as a sessional musician for The Beatles. His playing can be heard on Glass Onion and Piggies on The White Album.
The extraordinarily busy Ronald's studio recording sessions included working on the film sound tracks for some of the most iconic films of the 20th Century : Amadeus, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Out of Africa, Batman and Star Wars.
Ronald moved back to Australia in 1987 to become the Artistic Director of the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra (now Opera Australia). He spent the next 20 years of his life in Sydney, in the thick of the musical life that beats the heart of our great eastern harbour town.
He was a guest lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium and the leader of the Sydney String Quartet.
His burgeoning passion for violin making, was fed by his travels out into the beautiful Blue Mountains to learn the art of violin making from renowned Australian Luthiers Adele Beardsmore and Alan Coggins.
He also formed the Soloists of Australia that appeared at the Perth Festival.
Now living in Perth, Ronald Thomas continues to perform and teach.
He is currently working on new recording projects linking up with long time musical colleagues.
Ronald performed the Beethoven Violin Concerto, and conducted the Metropolitan Symphony in 2016. We are honoured to have Ronald back with us in 2023, as Musical Director of our new MetSO Chamber Orchestra (MCO) - continuing on the tradition of the Encore Strings / Encore Chamber Orchestra founded in 2009 by Ashley Arbuckle & Louise Allen.
There are very few that could have followed on from the inimitable Ashley Arbuckle; we are extremely grateful to Ronald for his time, and wealth of experience in taking on this unique all-age daytime ensemble. MetSO Chamber involves skilled musicians from just 12-years of age, through to the remarkable June Creagh at age 92!
Ronald Thomas AM with his adoring MetSO Chamber musicians.
MetSO Chamber Orchestra proudly supported by the City of Stirling.