Thomas Warfield

Thomas Warfield is an international performing artist who’s lived in six countries. As a singer, dancer, actor, model, composer, pianist, choreographer, director, producer, educator, activist, and poet, Warfield has performed on stage, television, and film in more than 100 cities worldwide.

His childhood dance training in Rochester, NY was with Olive McCue at the Mercury Ballet, and piano and voice training at Eastman School of Music where he performed with Opera Theatre of Rochester and local theatre groups. He also trained in New York City at the School of American Ballet. Warfield holds a bachelor's degree in dance and journalism from SUNY Purchase, and a master's in dance ethnology from the University of Utah. His professional dance career has included performing with the Joffrey Ballet, Jane Dudley in London and New York, and ballet companies in Hong Kong, Stockholm, Paris, San Francisco, Macau, and elsewhere. His numerous and diverse professional performances include at the New York City Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, The Yard on Martha’s Vineyard, a circus in Japan, three U.S. prisons, HBO Shorts, Marie Claire Magazine in Hong Kong, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II in London, and an East Coast tour of his original project AstroDance, which combines dance and astrophysics, funded by the National Science Foundation. He the founder and artistic director of the 33-year-old PeaceArt International, Inc., a global project using arts to foster world peace. For 25 years Warfield has been the director of dance at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is former dance critic for the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.

Warfield was recently appointed by Governor Kathy Hochul to the New York Hate and Bias Prevention Council, and appointed by Rochester mayor Lovely Warren as co-chair of the City of Rochester’s Arts & Creative Community Committee. He serves on the boards of Garth Fagan Dance, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Rochester Area Community Foundation Advisory. He has served on the YWCA Diversity Advisory Board, Eastman School of Music Action Commission for Racial Justice, is a former president of ARTWalk, a former president of Association of Teaching Artists, a founding board member of MuCCC Theatre, and president emeritus of the William Warfield Scholarship Fund.

He's also served on the board of the World Dance Alliance in Hong Kong, Young Audiences, Greentopia, the Rochester City Ballet, Gateways Music Festival, Rochester Chamber Orchestra, Rochester Area Community Foundation, Rochester Fringe Festival, NY Dance Festival, Education for Peace, and China Millennium Council. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the U.S. House of Representatives Congressional Special Recognition Award, New York State Commendation Award, United Nations Peace Award, American Ethical Union Award, Empire State Pride Agenda LGBTQ Champion Award, National Dance Education Association Award, University of Rochester Medical Center Red Ribbon for HIV Research, City of Rochester Unsung Heroes Award, National Task Force on AIDS Prevention Award, Rochester Pride Parade Grand Marshall, and an off-off Broadway award for choreography. His Global Poem In Praise of Peace garnered global recognition in letters from composer Leonard Bernstein, Mother Teresa, The Dalai Lama and hundreds of others. Thomas Warfield’s first solo album of original compositions, "Celebrate the Moment," has sold throughout the world and can be found on itunes.com and Spotify.