The american pianist and conductor Thomas Wise was educated at the Interlochen Arts Academy in his native Michigan. As a scholarship student of Bartok-pupil György Sándor, he received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at The Juilliard School in New York. Awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 1990, he came to Germany to study with Aloys Kontarsky in Cologne, finishing his studies with the Konzertexamen degree. Further studies followed with Peter Feuchtwanger in London.

Thomas Wise has appeared as piano soloist, chamber musician, lied-recitalist, or conductor at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Kölner Musiktriennale, Ludwigsburger Festspiele, Dresdner Musikfestival, Hamburger Musikfest, and Montepulciano Festival. Recordings of works by Chopin, Weill, Albeniz, Theodorakis, and Ives document the flexibility of his musical interests.

As a pedagogue, Thomas Wise taught from 1993-2000 at the opera school of the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, as well as being invited as a guest faculty member at the Opera Studio Nederlands in Amsterdam.

Thomas Wise was Staatsopernrepetitor at the Hamburg State Opera from 2001-2004. As guest-conductor he has appeared with the WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln as well as the State Youth Orchestra of Nordrhein-Westfalen. At the invitation of Ingo Metzmacher he conducted Mauricio Kagel´s "Oral Treason" in the Hamburger Musikhalle.

Since 2004 Thomas Wise has been engaged as conductor as well as Head of Music at Bonn Opera. He directed the world-premiere of Steffen Schleiermacher´s "Kokain" as well as a wide repertoire of staple operas by Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, Britten, Humperdinck, Donizetti, Rossini, and J. Strauss. He was the musical director for Werner Schroeter´s acclaimed production of Thomas Adès "Powder Her Face". Thomas Wise made his successful debut at the Norwegian national Opera conducting Dvorak's "Rusalka" at the new Oslo opera house in September of 2009.