Tom Knific has performed with many of the great jazz artists of our time on tour and on record. They include Gene Bertoncini, Billy Hart, Randy Brecker, Dave Brubeck, Fred Hersch, and others. He and Eric Marienthal co-led the “Dream Band” with Toots Thielemans, Kenny Werner and Harvey Mason in the first live interactive jazz concert multi-cast over the Internet. As a classical artist, he has recorded with Pepe Romero, Andre Watts, Philippe Entremont, and the Merling Trio, and has been principal bassist with orchestras and chamber orchestras in the U.S. and Europe. He has appeared at chamber music festivals throughout North America and Europe and is a founding member and composer for the contemporary music group, OPUS 21. Tom is professor of double bass and director of jazz studies at Western Michigan University. He has also taught at the Interlochen Arts Academy, Michigan State University, Cleveland Institute of Music, and has presented over a hundred master classes worldwide.

As a composer, Tom has written over a dozen works in a variety of idioms. He has been commissioned by OPUS 21, and leading instrumentalists. He has received numerous grants and awards for his writing and his music may be heard on six CD’s. In contemporary music, Tom has worked with John Cage, Donald Erb, Mario Davidovsky, Eve Beglarian, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Curtis Curtis-Smith, Richard Adams, Chen Yi, Tania Leon, and others.

A renown educator, Tom’s students have toured and recorded with Betty Carter, Vincent Herring, Cedar Walton, John Scofield, and perform in orchestras on three continents. In addition, he received the Down Beat magazine Achievement in Jazz Education award in 2004. The Jazz Studies program at Western Michigan University has produced more Down Beat magazine Student Music Award winners than any other school for most of the last decade. Tom is leader of the Western Jazz Quartet. The WJQ has appeared on four continents and has received rave reviews for their five CD’s of original music. In 1998, Jazzheads Records released “Home Bass”, Knific’s first solo CD, which was CD of the week on the internet magazine The Jazz Review. Knific released a second solo CD, Siena, in 2004 on Sea Breeze Records. He has also recorded on the Universal, Mercury, Koch International, SMR, Centaur, Jazzheads and Polonia labels. Tom is president of the International Society of Bassists and hosted the 2005 world convention in Kalamazoo, Michigan.