Dr. Bookhout is a Treble Maker

Dr. Thomas Bookhout is the Music Teacher and Choir Director at Glendale Preparatory Academy. As you will soon learn, Dr. Bookhout is a big deal in the music world. And yet, he has the ability and empathy to gently show an insecure student that they can sing. And not just sing, but sing with confidence, the ability to read sheet music, and an understanding of music theory.

“High school students approach every opportunity like they have no limits. I love their curiosity to learn, their enthusiasm for everything, and their innate desire to draw toward excellent things – whether that is truth, new knowledge, or a high-quality choir,” said Bookhout. “They are young enough to not know everything yet, but old enough to finally care about learning things they do not know.”

Dr. Bookhout is a native of New York and earned his MM (Master of Music) at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester and his DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) at Arizona State University. He has served on the board of the AZ ACDA (The Arizona Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association) and is a member of numerous professional music and educational organizations.

As the Chorus Master for The Phoenix Symphony, he has conducted The Phoenix Symphony Chorus in performances of its own in Phoenix, at Carnegie Hall, in Vienna and Salzburg, and in Poland. His impressively vast resume includes experience with the choral art, preparing and conducting symphony, opera, university, community, school, and church choruses. He has held positions at University of Charleston, Ottawa University, West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, New York’s Taghkanic Chorale, and Stony Brook School in New York.

“I have been blessed to be a teacher at every level from middle school through college, as well as a high school principal, and school headmaster at other times. I find something truly refreshing and rewarding about every age student. Even with the Phoenix Symphony Chorus, I find that adults can be lifelong learners who never lose the curiosity and desire to pursue excellence that they first awakened as teenagers.”

He became familiar with Great Hearts academies when he was the pastor of music ministries at Camelback Bible Church, and Veritas Prep was just getting established nearby. “Many of our friends and their children were enrolling in the school and I was very excited about the mission of Great Hearts. I have many friends who teach in Great Hearts academies, and I have long been acquainted with the high standards, quality students, and dedicated teachers. The opportunity came up three years ago to join the faculty at Anthem Prep and it seemed like a good fit for me.”

It is teachers like Dr. Bookhout that make our academies so unique. Bookhout brings a wealth of rich experience and talent to his students. Our young scholars have the opportunity to train with the masters in their crafts. “I cherish the privilege of mentoring [scholars] at such a critical time in their life, when they are figuring out who they are, what they are good at, and what their values are. Some of the most important decisions of their entire life will be made on the foundation of who they have become during their teenage years, so there is not a better time to be working with them.”

“I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning” ― Plato

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