Kerr, Thomas Henderson, Jr.

Composer Thomas Henderson Kerr, Jr. began playing and studying piano at an early age, was self-taught on the organ, and, as early as fourteen, played for church services as well as in Baltimore's nightclubs. He studied at Howard University, remaining there for one year before transferring to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. At Eastman he studied piano with Cecile Genharadt and graduated summa cum laude.

Following his studies at Eastman, he was appointed to the Music Faculty at Knoxville College in Tennessee. He was also the recipient of a Rosenwald fellowship for work in composition. Two years later Dean Warner Lawson of the School of Music, Howard University appointed him as Professor of Piano and Chairman of the Piano Department in the School of Music where he served for more than thirty years, before retiring in 1976. During his tenure at Howard his career flourished as he composed and arranged music for significant events directly and indirectly affecting the University, such as the Howard University Centennial, and the installation services for James Nabrit, president of the University as well as for the U.S. Bicentennial, and the deaths of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. At the time of his death, Kerr had more than one hundred compositions to his credit.

For over thirty-five years he served as the organist at Plymouth Congregational Church in Washington, D.C. His organ works have been performed at the National Cathedral, the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Mormon Tabernacle and in more than twenty cathedrals and churches in Europe. As a pianist, he performed concerts at a variety of places including the National Gallery of Art, and the Phillips Collection, and appeared twice as a concert soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C.