Celebrate National Music Week: "Music is...Unstoppable" - May 4-11, 2025
Tom Gerou is a CFMC member, composer, and pianist from Southern California whose pieces have been selected for the NEW 2024-2028 NFMC Bulletin. Learn more about him by reading below
Click on the links above to visit his website, and to follow him on Youtube, Instagramm and Facebook.
What is your most meaningful musical experience or memory? --Hearing one of my pieces performed or premiered for the first time is always an incredible experience for me. I become the audience and can critically perceive the piece far differently than when I perform or teach it. I hear the music as others hear it—and feel both excited, slightly anxious in anticipation, and very much alive. It is the same experience each time.
What do you enjoy when you are not composing or at the piano? -- The non-musical side of me enjoys visual design, editing, and engraving. I find these relaxing and intellectually interesting—both as a hobby and professionally. Although musically related, it has a different appeal and release for me.
At what age and how did you start composing? -- I believe I started composing at age 14 or 15 with an instrumental exit piece for my family’s rock band concerts. We played that piece for years. I also composed many piano pieces throughout high school as well as our high school graduation song. By age 16 I desperately wanted to compose like Debussy, Ginastera, and Stravinsky. My first published piece was a choral piece at age 20, which then decided my future.
What advice do you have for our young members interested in composing?--Be aware of what you are writing and how to strengthen each composition. I advise avoiding improvisation as the tool for composing. Pieces require a conscious economy of means, planning, and much hard work to be effective and timeless. I believe teaching pieces to be of equal value to any other composition if done effectively—just with more restraints and parameters.
Listen to the Tom Gerou's NFMC Piano Solo playlist
Listen to Tom Gerou's NFMC Piano Duet playlist
Tom Gerou's Piano SOLO Event Pieces listed by Class
All pieces list are composed by Tom Gerou
PRIMARY CLASS I
Around a Roundabout
Early Elementary $4.99 4pp
Square Wheels
Early Elementary $4.99 4pp
PRIMARY CLASSS II
Half an Orange
Elementary $4.99 4pp
Songs from the Sky
Elementary $4.99 4pp
PRIMARY CLASS III
Dreamcatcher
Late Elementary $4.99 4pp
Overlapping Waves
Late Elementary $4.99 4pp
PRIMARY CLASS IV
Heavenly Blue
Early Intermediate $4.99 4pp
ELEMENTARY CLASS I
Celestial Arches (sheet version)
Early Intermediate $4.99 4pp
Modelli di cinque (Patterns of Five)
from In Style Romantique
Intermediate to Late Intermediate
$10.99 32pp
ELEMENTARY CLASS II
Saturnine
Intermediate $4.99 4pp
Treni di passaggio (Passing Trains)
from In Style Romantique
Intermediate to Late Intermediate
$10.99 32pp
ELEMENTARY CLASS III
A hui hou (Until We Meet Again)
from Novellas, Book
Late Intermediate $9.99 24pp
Sequoia Gigantea
Intermediate $4.99 4pp
ELEMENTARY CLASS IV
Canzone romantico (Love Song)
from In Style Romantique
Intermediate to Late Intermediate
$10.99 32pp
Menuetto al fresco from Novellas, Book 1
Late Intermediate $9.99 24pp
MEDIUM CLASS
Danza dialogo (Dialogue Dance)
from In Style Romantique
Intermediate to Late Intermediate
$10.99 32pp
Stella cadente (Shooting Star)
from In Style Romantique
Intermediate to Late Intermediate
$10.99 32pp
MODERATELY DIFFICULT CLASS I
La bella tentazione (The Beautiful Temptation)(sheet version)
Late Intermediate $4.99 4pp
The Tritone Paradox
Intermediate $4.99 4pp
MODERATELY DIFFICULT CLASS II
The Spice of Life from Novellas, Book 1
Late Intermediate $9.99 24pp
Moto perpetuo from Novellas, Book 1
Late Intermediate $9.99 24pp
MODERATELY DIFFICULT CLASS III
La vie élégante (The Elegant Life)
from Novellas, Book 1
Late Intermediate $9.99 24pp
Vaudviullium from Novellas, Book 1
Late Intermediate $9.99 24pp
DIFFICULT CLASS I
Evening on the River Nile from Novellas, Book 2 Early Advanced $9.99 24pp
Rondino volante (With Light Rapidity)
(sheet version) Late Intermediate $4.99 4pp
DIFFICULT CLASS II
Folie á deux from Novellas, Book 2
Early Advanced) $9.99 24pp
La tempesta (The Storm)
from In Style Romantique Intermediate to Late Intermediate $10.99 32pp
VERY DIFFICULT CLASS I
Gioco di delfini (Dolphins at Play)
from In Style Romantique
Intermediate to Late Intermediate $10.99 32pp
Petit parley
from Novellas, Book 2 by Tom Gerou
Early Advanced $9.99 24pp
VERY DIFFICULT CLASS II
Arioso varié from Novellas, Book 2
Early Advanced $9.99 24pp
La barca di Cléopâtre (Cleopatra’s Bardge)
from Novellas, Book 2 Early Advanced $9.99 24pp
MUSICALLY ADVANCED CLASS 1
Commedia dell’arte (The Art of Comedy)
from In Style Romantique Intermediate to Late Intermediate $10.99 32pp
Tango ritornello from Novellas, Book 2
Early Advanced $9.99 24pp
MUSICALLY ADVANCED CLASS II
Trireme Toccata
Early Advanced $6.99 8pp
Tom Gerou's Piano DUET Event Pieces listed by Class
All pieces list are composed by Tom Gerou
PRIMARY CLASS IV
Time Will Tell (sheet version)
Elementary $4.99 4pp
ELEMENTARY CLASS I
Pendula Perpetual (sheet version)
Late Elementary $6.99 8pp (979-8-3507-2573-5)
ELEMENTARY CLASS II
Aimless Clouds (sheet version)
Early Intermediate
$4.99 4pp
Gaia (Earth) from Duettini, Book 2
Late Elementary to Early Intermediate
$9.99 24pp
Gaia (Earth) (sheet version)
Late Elementary $6.99 8pp
ELEMENTARY CLASS III
2 Halves of an Orange (sheet version)
Late Elementary $6.99 8pp
ELEMENTARY CLASS IV
Crosswinds (sheet version)
Intermediate $6.99 8pp
MEDIUM CLASS
8-Bit Blues (sheet version)
Intermediate $6.99 8pp
MODERATELY DIFFICULT CLASS I
(Giro in carrozza*) Kontrapunkt (sheet version) Late Intermediate $6.99 8pp
*If you are a CFMC member and would like to be featured, please contact Virginia Feitelson