In 1995, he was accepted into the Suffolk Youth Band and in August 1996. Following a hugely successful and enjoyable concert tour to Budapest Hungary with the SYWB, Tom was promoted to the percussion section of the nationally acclaimed Suffolk Youth Orchestra. It was with the SYO that Tom developed considerably as an Orchestral Percussionist. He spent just over five years in the SYO, enjoying numerous concert appearances in the UK. Venues included Snape Maltings, Suffolk's St Edmundsbury Cathederal, and three performances in London, two of which were at the Royal Festival Hall. During Tom’s membership of the SYO he also toured Europe extensively, including Valencia, Barcelona, Krakow, Tuscany, Paris and the Bay of Liguria, near Alassio, in Italy.
Just under a year after playing his last concert with the Suffolk Youth Orchestra, Tom embarked upon another four years of study, reading for an Honours Degree at the Colchester Institute, which is part of the Anglia Ruskin University . It was here that he met Chris Phelps (Course Leader for the Music BA). Chris had both the skills and, more crucially the willingness to teach Tom much about the art of conducting and