Thomas Claesen grew up in Ostend, Belgium, where he still lives today.  In his earlier years, Wim De Vlaminck and Johan Delacauw provided instruction and encouragement in his musical pursuits.

In the Fall of 2007 and the Spring of 2008, Thomas was a music major at Arizona State University.  After studying abroad for two semesters, he marched his first summer of drum corps at The Academy Drum and Bugle Corps, to whom he returned for the 2009 season.  In 2010, Thomas went on to march with the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps.  The following summer he brought his 4 years of DCI performance to a close with The Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps, with the Fred Sanford Award for Best Percussion Performance to punctuate a successful age-out season.  During his drum corps career Thomas got to learn from educators like Eric Ridenour, Matt Ramey, Ryan Masterson, Michael McIntosh, Brian Tinkel, Glen Crosby and Murray Gusseck.

Thomas holds a B.A. in Linguistics and Literature from Ghent University and is currently pursuing a M.A. in Translation in Ghent.  In Belgium he is the battery caption head and arranger for DrumSpirit Percussion Ensemble, and internationally he has taught in the Netherlands, South Africa and the United States.  This will be Thomas’s second year teaching The Cavaliers tenor line and he is very excited to be a part of the corps’ percussion staff again.