Inspirational Person of the Week: Tom Hammett

In the summer of 2015 I was a jobless “bum” and couldn’t decide what to do with my life. Naturally, the chance to earn a little cash was appealing, so when I was asked to fill in for the regular pianist at Brainerd Presbyterian Church one Sunday in July, I accepted. I had no idea just how significant that choice would prove to be.

I was treated like a rock star as soon as I walked in the door; I’ve never encountered a more friendly, welcoming, and appreciative group of people. The music director, Tom Hammett, and I quickly became good friends. I went back to the church several times that summer and was always greeted with the same enthusiasm. Tom asked me to do a piano concert at the church and, thanks largely to his behind-the-scenes efforts, it drew a large crowd. I had never walked away from a concert with so many donations nor had I ever sold more CDs at a single event.

Tom became my unofficial PR agent—“unofficial” only because I was too poor to pay him anything! He promoted my performances widely and wrote rave reviews about them. He also went to great lengths to introduce me to all the famous musicians he knew—which turned out to be a great many indeed! And when I occasionally get a friend request on Facebook from a well-known musician or impresario, I have to smile and think, Ah… Tom has been at it again.

In the spring of 2016 I found out that I had been accepted to a masters program at the University of Cambridge, a place I’d dreamed of going to for years. The only problem was that I didn’t have enough money and I hadn’t received the scholarships I’d applied for. So I decided to pick the collective brain of Facebook, not expecting anything to come of it. In a public post I asked if anyone might have ideas about potential sources of funding, such as scholarships I wasn’t aware of. A few days later I received a message from Tom: “I may have found a source for nearly HALF of your tuition funds! This is BIG!!!!”

Sure enough, he had. Unbeknownst to me, he’d been busily working behind the scenes and had found an incredibly generous member of his church who had heard me play and wanted to support me. And he didn’t stop there. He went on to assist in organizing a large-scale fundraiser concert on my behalf, and setup a scholarship fund for me through his church, Brainerd Presbyterian. As it turns out, he’s good at more than just music and networking. After the concert, he put on his accounting hat and processed the many donations that came in.

It was also due to Tom’s networking that I was able to attend the national conference of the American Choral Directors Association this year, which turned out to be a valuable opportunity to make new connections and gain more exposure for my compositions. Tom found someone who offered to cover my airfare—the same generous donor, in fact, who’d contributed to my Cambridge fund.

Due to the often-overwhelming amount of competition, my chosen career path is not one that is easy to get into—unless you have people who are willing to help you in a big way. When I met Tom in 2015 I was very discouraged at the lack of interest and rejection my work had often met with—from publishers, conductors, competitions, etc. Tom, with his unbridled enthusiasm about my music, came on the scene at just the right time. His support has been a huge encouragement and has helped me reach major career goals I could not have otherwise achieved. And, because of Tom, I’ve set another goal: I want to learn to be as encouraging as he is and as willing to lend a helping hand to others.

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This is the fifth in a series of articles about people who have changed my life for the better. For some background information on what inspired me to write this series, click here.