Tom grew up in the suburbs of New York City – when he was 8 years old his father brought home an old upright piano and Tom discovered he was able to play by ear.  He would spend hours playing and soon began studying piano and guitar.  He started exploring other instruments like drums and bass while becoming extremely fascinated with multi-track recording – he built his first recording studio in the 6th grade making recordings of himself playing all the instruments.    After High School, Tom entered The United States Air Force and earned the highest musical honor, ‘The Roger’, for writing an arrangement for a quartet that he performed with in Las Vegas where Joey Bishop and Jimmy Durante presented him with the Roger award.   After being discharged, he, along with a former high school band member and Air Force singing partner, were signed to 20th Century Fox to record an album.  They would go on the release a Buddy Holly cover song which charted at #48 in Billboard.  After the group disbanded,  at 24, Tom would go on to produce his first album for an up and coming solo artist while playing many of the instruments on the album at the then famous Criteria Recording Studios in Miami.  His fascination for orchestration soon drove him to study woodwinds, brass and viola by age 30.