• Three time Helen Hayes Award winner for Outstanding Sound Design, 2010, 2011, 2016 (six nominations, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016)
• Hundreds of exotic instruments ranging from traditional and world percussion to exotic flutes and strings
• Unique ability to perform live combining prerecorded sound with live performance
• Extensive experience with a wide variety of projects and musical styles
• Well known and respected in the DC Theatre Community. Shows receive a boost in attendance especially with live performance
• Ability to perform pre-show music as overture
• Well known with theatre press. Many receiving accolades for sound contribution
• Perfect for professional theatre companies, one-person shows, dance companies and university theatre programs
• Extensive collection and knowledge of cutting edge electronics and music technology

Press for Sound Design/Composition/Performance

Journey to the West

Composer and musician Tom Teasley, who has become synonymous with Constellation’s epic productions, is on stage throughout, creating yet another magical synthesis of “world sounds,” this one filled with elements of Chinese music including bamboo flute, the bawu, the kouxian, and enough gongs and cymbals to help a certain monkey crash the gates of heaven. Teasley has just won the 2016 Drum! Magazine Percussionist of the Year, and to hear his inventive score live alone is worth the price of admission."- Susan Galbraith – DCTheatreScene.com

 "composer and sound designer Tom Teasley. His globally knowing live accompaniment helps catapult this tale across borders and even into the clouds. "- Nelson Presley -The Washington Post

 “Tom Teasley serves as the sound designer but, in an even more vital role, he composed the music which he performs solo each 2-1/2 hour performance. Live, original music is knit into the DNA of Constellation Theatre and Teasley has been a significant part of that - Teasley's work for the musical composition and sound design of Constellation's CRAZYFACE and THE RAMAYANA earned Helen Hayes Awards; he will find out on May 23 whether his nomination for THE FIRE AND THE RAIN will result in a third trophy. The score for THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST has the award-winning world music percussionist layering gongs, traditional Chinese cymbals, blocks and a host of other instruments.” -  Pamala Roberts – Broadway World

“…another evocative musical score composed and performed by that Washington musical treasure otherwise known as Tom Teasley.” – Terry Polnick- The Washington Times

The Love of the Nightingale

 "As for the music – it may be hyperbolic, but let’s just say that I scribbled “Tom Teasley = Grammy?” in the margin of my notes." DCMetroTheatreArts

"Tom Teasley has a unique talent for creating music that is at once ancient and modern. Taking inspiration from Greek, Balkan and Thracian music --particularly well suited for his original music for this production, Teasley also adds another layer to the eternal discussion of communication with music, so fitting for a play which ends when humans transformed into birds communicate in what we hear as music." --Celia Sharpe-

http://sharpenicity.blogspot.com/

"Musical accompaniment by Tom Teasley perfectly accentuates the moments with tympani-like crescendo for gigantic events or the soft whipple of a lark for softer moments. Teasley’s mastery of the assorted instruments elevates the experience to new levels by connecting the scenes to the earliest human experience of sound—before there was speech and communication, there was an ancient drumbeat, replicating the heartbeat, and Teasley’s rhythms touch the heart and soul." DCTHEATRESCENE
Read full review here--http://dctheatrescene.com/2014/04/29/love-nightingale/

" ...with a soundtrack from the inimitable Tom Teasley, Constellation Theatre Company adds enough of its own elements to make the myth its own... Enlivening it all is Teasley, whose energetic mastery of percussion and wind instruments is always thrilling to see in action."-- Washingtonian After Dark

                                   RAMAYANA  (Peter Oswald) REMOUNT QUOTES

It hasn’t taken long for Allison Arkell Stockman and Tom Teasley to form one of the most distinctive theatrical partnerships in Washington. The Stockman-Teasley experience is on full display in “The Ramayana,” which was so popular during its run last spring that it’s back (through Aug. 21) at Source Theatre. Arrive early and you can watch Teasley in his corral next to the small stage, working an array of unusual instruments, electronic and acoustic, creating alluring sounds to usher in Stockman’s Hindu adventure. Once the show begins, Teasley blends into Stockman’s rich mix, even as his music continues to trigger the production’s vivid moods.-Nelson Pressley, The Washington Post

 The defining feature of this production is Tom Teasley’s music; the traditional labels of ‘Composer’ or ‘Sound Designer’ do not accurately describe what Teasley contributes. Combining pre-recorded tracks with live performance, Teasley accompanies the action, highlighting mood and movement with a variety of exotic instruments, and occasionally taking center stage during scene transitions and pre/post show. Teasley is an absolute master of his craft, transcending the surprisingly restrictive generic label of ‘World Music’, and this production is worth seeing if only for his performance.- Pessica Pearson, Maryland Theater Guide

 Underscoring it all is the über-percussionist Tom Teasley, who won a Helen Hayes Award for his pulse-quickening live soundtrack for the play, utilizing several instruments—both ancient and contemporary—along with synthesizers and his own vocal chords for further assistance. It’s a masterful performance that helps make The Ramayana thrilling and stimulating to the end.-Missy Frederick, Washingtonian

 …spellbinding music, this time provided by musician and composer Tom Teasley, who uses recorded tracks and live performance to weave an eclectic soundscape of world beats and classical Indian rhythms.- Jayne Blanchard, DC Theatre Secene

 ..composer/live percussionist Tom Teasley. Who simultaneously beat-boxed, drummed, played instruments making sounds I thought impossible sans Logic, creating an additional character of the music. The Washington Post calls him “a percussionist in the widest and most exuberant sense of the word”—no need to say any more.- Mallory Hemerlein, BYL

Stockman’s production is a feast for both the mind and the eyes, moving effortlessly on the rails of live music by Teasley, who conjures up a medley of sounds, including Indian beats, on an array of instruments. Sitting calmly in a corner, Teasley creates the winds, the ocean, the battle and the drama, all aiding to transport the audience to another place and another time. It’s clear why he was the recepient of the prestigious Helen Hayes award this year for outstanding sound design for The Ramayana.- Sema Sirohi, Outlook India

                                      THE GREEN BIRD (Carlo Gozzi)

The other clue you’re in for a good time is the witty presence of composer/performer Tom Teasley, ensconced above the stage in a kind of bird’s nest DJ booth. Playing almost non-stop throughout the play, he keeps the energy both onstage and in the audience lively. But it’s his interplay with the actors that’s really the key component of the production’s success, as his musical accompaniment weaves through the dialogue sometimes like an echo and other times like a conversation itself. With him, it’s stupendous fun and does much to counterpoint the play’s silliness. – Jenn Larson, We Love DC

 Two-time Helen Hayes Award winner Teasley performs his richly percussive underscoring and incidental music on this bandstand.…composer Tom Teasley’s evocative score reaches its peak in moments when motion and design synchronize to create magical transformations and epiphanies .The production’s lighting turns blue and green, while synthesizer sounds and a throbbing bass line in Teasley’s score suggest the high-voltage enchantment that has animated stone.- Celia Wrem, The Washington Post

 The music has expanded to include Middle East-infused melodic elements along with the percussive. Perched high above, shadowed in a dusky twilight on a platform supported by winding wrought iron stairs in pale aqua on either side, its Slinky-like swirls echoing the floor design, is the one-man band of Helen Hayes Award winning musician Tom Teasley. The sound of drums, recorder and keyboard synthesizer and Teasley’s scat vocals, alternately punctuating and underlining the characters’ actions. Leslie Weismann, DC Theater Scene

 RAMAYANA by Peter Oswald

 Ramayana is an extravaganza of artistic expression of all of this and more, filled with sights, sounds, colors, music and yes, the almighty drum beat.

 The Helen Hayes Award winning master percussionist Tom Teasley sets the tone during open seating.  Enough cannot be said about Teasley’s impact as part of the show with his vast array of instruments and omnipresent involvement enhancing the mood, creating the effects of rain, and even the ocean waves as part of his absolute genius on percussions.-Debbie Jackson, DC Theater Scene

With so many characters travelling through many worlds, it’s vital to have a backbone and here Stockman has picked the best – live music composed and performed by percussionist Tom Teasley. From playing the doumbek to scat singing, he pulls the audience along as a kind of musical narrator, and it’s easily the second most riveting performance of the evening, grounding time and place far more effectively than any set design.The actors are clearly envigorated by Teasley’s musical support.-Jenn Larson, WE LOVE DC

...the musical stylings of indefatigable Composer, Live Performer and PercussionistTom Teasley. Teasley uses a variety of instruments, plus his own brand of scatting to evoke the mood for each scene.- Jada Bradley, EXAMINER

 Composer Tom Teasley -- like Guban, a Constellation regular -- sits on the side of the stage, intently performing his invaluable now-spooky, now pulse-quickening percussion-heavy score. - Celia Wren, WASHINGTON POST

 ..percussionist-composer Tom Teasley conjures a veritable universe of near-supernatural noises, all on his own.- Tray Graham, WASHINGTON CITY PAPER

 Percussion opens, closes, and leads the way in Peter Oswald's agile poetic adaptation of the Hindu sacred epic The Ramayana, which has been artfully produced by the Constellation Theatre Company and its artistic director Allison Arkell Stockman. Tom Teasley composed the percussion soundscape and delivers a standout performance as the only musical performer. The Dresser, who has acquired a growing interest in percussion composition since hearing Gérard Grisey's "Le Noir de L'Étoile," thinks that what made Teasley's concert of original sounds unusual was that he added scat singing to the mix of drums and odd keyboard instrument called the melodika.-Karren LaLonde Alenier, THE DRESSING

 CRAZYFACE by Clive Barker

..accompanied by master percussionist Tom Teasley whose original music, sound effects, and musical interludes could easily sell as a free-standing CD.-Debbie Jackson, DC THEATER SCENE

 Tom Teasley's original score, which he performs onstage, is a fever dream of spooky theatricality, its exotic warbling, whirring, percussive sounds ratcheting up the story's suspense.-Celia Wren, WASHINGTON POST

 The live music and effects composed and performed by Tom Teasley add to the sensation.-Andrej Krasnansky. DCist

 ORESTIA by Aeschylus

 

The primordial tone comes across from the onset with the percussive sounds of the drumbeat and ancient tones thanks to Tom Teasley’s original world music._Debbie Jackson-DC THEATER SCENE

 Frequent Constellation collaborator Tom Teasley once again supplies an atmospheric original score -- an eerie symphony of exotic percussion, which he performs himself from an onstage platform. Celia Wren, WASHINGTON POST

 Other technical achievements include percussionist Tom Teasley's fantastic live musical accompaniment (which is a show in itself)- Doug Krentzlin, EXAMINER

 

TEMPTATION by Václav Havel 

Composer Tom Teasley's underscoring lends the evening a fittingly off-center air.-Peter Marks, WASHINGTON POST

 Tom Teasley’s original electronic music all support the strange atmosphere of this story.-Steven Mcknight, DC THEATER SCENE

 It is also a joy to listen to as well, thanks to Tom Teasley’s original music score.-Doug Krentzlen, EXAMINER

 GOOD WOMAN OF SETZUAN by Bertolt Brecht

 Original music, composed by Tom Teasley, blended far away sounds of Asian tonality with a modern contemporary flair.-Debbie Jackson, DC THEATER SCENE

Another holdover from "The Arabian Nights" is composer and percussionist Tom Teasley, whose beautiful original score is a crucial element of this production.-EXAMINER

 ARABIAN NIGHTS by Mary Zimmerman

 Composer-percussionist Tom Teasley, who plays the music live from his own niche in A.J. Guban's set. With his unusual array of instruments, his propulsive beats and near-dervish presence, Teasley is practically a show unto himself.-Nelson Pressley, WASHINGTON POST

 Percussionist Tom Teasley plays his exotic musical instruments at all the right moments to heighten the level of drama on stage....And Teasley deserves another mention; he not only performs the enchanting music, but composed it as well.-Janice Cane