The Rev. Deacon Thomas Mark Liotta became the Minister of Music at St. James’ Church in 1990 after having served in the same capacity in the Roman Catholic Church for many years.
Deacon Liotta began playing the organ while still in high school as substitute organist in the many churches in Troy, New York. He began his formal studies of the organ at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC with Mr. Robert Twynham, organist and choir director of the Cathedral of Mary the Queen in Baltimore, MD.
When he arrived in New York, he studied organ with Dr. Bronson Reagan, organist at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in New York City. He did his liturgical and choral training at the St. Pius X School of Liturgical Music of Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY where Mr. Walter Ehret, noted arranged and choral clinician, was his instructor in vocal methods and choral conducting.
Prior to being received into the Episcopal Church, Deacon Liotta was a member of the Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic religious order.