Thomas Fellow studied classical guitar at the “Franz Liszt” University of Music in Weimar. During his time as a classical guitarist he won prizes at various international competitions, played as a soloist with outstanding orchestras and gave concerts in India, Brazil, the USA, Russia and many major European cities. Various well-known composers dedicated compositions to him and gave him the world premiere of these works (including Carlo Domeniconi and Jaime Zenamon).
He ended his classical career in 1992 with a successful concert at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. Since then he has concentrated on his own music in selected projects. With his two duos FRIEND `N FELLOW and HANDS ON STRINGS as well as the EUROPEAN GUITAR QUARTET (with Zoran Dukic, Pavel Steidl and Reentko Dirks) he has now played almost 3000 concerts in over 30 countries and sold more than 100.000 CDs with his own music.
With the EUROPEAN GUITAR QUARTET he played at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Moscow Tchaikovsky Hall or the New York Kaufmann Concert Hall with FRIEND `N FELLOW at the Penang Jazz Festival (Malaysia) and at the legendary THE 100 CLUB in London and with his duo HANDS ON STRINGS in Rome at the Festival of the Nations and in the Leipzig Gewandhaus.
He shared the stage with legends like Luther Allison, Ray Charles, Al Jarreau and Tommy Emmanuel. And in 2018 he returned successfully to the “classical world” at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and collaborated with the world stars SABINE MEYER and the KINGS SINGERS, including works by Mendelssohn.
For a few years now, Thomas Fellow has also increasingly appeared as a composer and author. Some of his compositions can already be found on CDs by well-known artists, are played in concerts around the world or are taught in over 60 countries through the TRINITY College program. His edition “Fellow Guitar Music Collection” as well as his standard work for the guitar as an accompanying instrument “Fellow Guitar Book” is published by Schott Music.
Thomas Fellow has been teaching at the Dresden University of Music since 1992.
Within a few years he developed the idea of a universal and contemporary training for the guitar, which is now one of the leading academies for this instrument with many competition prize winners, scholarship recipients and internationally performing artists. In 2018 Thomas Fellow was awarded the SAXONIAN EDUCATION AWARD for this innovative idea.
Thomas Fellow is regularly invited as a guest lecturer at universities (e.g. Capital University Columbus / USA; Real Conservatorio Superior de Musica Granada / Spain; Anton Bruckner Private University Linz / Austria) and to various festivals worldwide.