A special edition of the free “Brown Bag Lunch Concert” series is set for Saturday and will feature the husband-and-wife duo of Tom and Andrea Drury. They will perform a variety of songs based on love, from works by Puccini to Rogers and Hammerstein.
The concert will begin at 11 a.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church (720 Ford Avenue), where guests are invited to bring their lunch and enjoy the program in a relaxed, intimate setting.
Thomas Drury is a pianist, organist, fiddler, and composer who has made Evansville his home for more than two decades. He studied collaborative piano with Martin Katz at the University of Michigan and earned the Master of Music degree in that field in 2003. After completing an apprenticeship with Kentucky Opera in 2003, he moved to Evansville to pursue a career in church music.
Thomas began accompanying the University of Southern Indiana Chamber Choir on his arrival in Evansville in 2004, and in 2011 began serving as an instructor in music. He teaches music theory, piano, and jazz. He serves as organist and director of music at the historic downtown Trinity United Methodist Church and as accompanist for the Evansville Philharmonic Chorus. His jazz groups appear regularly in the Evansville area, and he occasionally appears with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra. He also has a passion for the traditional music of Ireland.
Thomas has released two albums of his compositions. By George (2014) consists of music in the jazz idiom, and Perhaps (2023) includes vocal and chamber music.
Andrea Drury, a soprano and conductor, has been making music in Evansville for the past 21 years. She is originally from Texas, but made her way to the Midwest during her graduate degree in vocal performance at Ohio State University. During her time in Columbus, she sang with the Opera Columbus chorus and was in their Opera Outreach program. She spent two summers at the Brevard Music Center, the summer of 2009 at the Opera North Young Artist Program, and a summer in Lucca, Italy, as part of the Opera Theatre of Lucca program.
Andrea also enjoys singing oratorio repertoire. She was the soprano soloist for Santa Fe Symphony’s Brahms Requiem and Schubert’s Mass in G. Her first affiliation with the Evansville Philharmonic was when she sang the soprano solos for their performance of Handel’s Messiah. She continues to sing various solos with the Philharmonic and took over as chorus director in 2012. She has also appeared with the University of Evansville Chorus and the University of Southern Indiana Chamber Choir as a soloist.
Andrea was the conductor of the North High School choral department from 2005-2015, where her choirs placed in the top 10 at the state competition for nine of her 10 years. From 2015 to 2017, she taught private voice at the University of Evansville and the University of Southern Indiana. She is currently the fine arts specialist for vocal music and theatre for the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation.
In 2014, the Drurys received the Artist Award, presented by the Arts Council of Southwest Indiana. Last year, Andrea received the Performing Art Award. Andrea also serves on the ISSMA State Board, is the Area 7 representative for the Indiana Music Education Association, and is the vice president and membership chair for the Indiana Choral Directors Association.
