With conviction to tell the truth and responsibility on his shoulder, Thomas Wright could not focus on anything but his message. Reaching a connection with the message and music, Wright knew he was meant to connect with the people

Although he originally started off as a pastor, Wright now serves as the  SHS music director and believes he has the same mission in a different form. Wright feels that music is a powerful way to show God’s love to kids. 

“I think that it (music) helps us to connect with each other, but I think music also helps us connect with the divine,” Wright said. “So much of music history is connected to expressing divine ideas.”

He got a taste of both his parents’ professions. With his mom teaching at a private Christian school, and being around many pastors, and his dad teaching at Southport High School, at different times, he wore both shoes. Nevertheless, he was unsure of which shoe he’d keep on.

Growing up in his faith, Wright always had a passion for being in full-time ministry. But he also felt a strong calling towards music and even played or experimented with  cello, piano, guitar, organ and bass during his time in orchestra..

With both of his passions at his fingertips, he didn’t know which way to go.

“It was always that tension of, at some point, ‘am I going to be a teacher, or am I going to be a pastor?’” Wright said.

As the years progressed, Wright decided to push towards the seminary track. 

With this, he started his first job as a teacher at Heritage Christian School. Wright still wanted to keep an aspect of music in his life, so he started his adult life with music education and eventually transitioned to missionary work. With seminary as his main focus, he did missionary work as an international English teacher.

“I started traveling at that point over to Russia in the summers to teach English,” Wright said. “You can do so much good in public school, but if you were a missionary, you could do more good.”

Wright went to Community Church of Greenwood and served as the music director and met Amy Jones there, a church attendee who occasionally played music for the church.

Jones has seen Wright in both of his professions and highlights how he is himself no matter what. 

“What is so magical about Tom Wright is his thisness…” Jones said. “Tom is just himself and what a wonderful reality for somebody to be who they are in whatever situation.”

But as time passed, Wright felt as if his church began presenting themselves in a different way, especially behind the scenes, and he knew it wasn’t his place anymore.

After leaving the church and having nowhere to go, he sought out new opportunities. Wright, in need of a job with a desire to serve his community, searched for a new place to settle in and work at.

Betsy Levin, Wright’s former orchestra director, reached out to him in need of a piano teacher. Wright graciously accepted and fell in love with the job immediately.

“It was the orchestra director here at Southport High School who has always been looking out for me. She was the inspiration that pushed me into music,” Wright said.

Once Levin approached retirement, she searched for a new orchestra director to take her place. When Wright was presented with the opportunity, he took it, and he became the SHS Orchestra Director around 2015.

“Of all the places that I could ever dream of teaching, Southport High School was always the top of my list,” Wright said. “I always wanted to come back and teach at Southport High School. The love I have for this community, for this school, what I could give back to this community and to the school is incalculable.”

Although he didn’t pursue seminary to the extent that he originally expected, he still remembers his past and mission trips often. 

Wright continues to pray for the kids he met in past countries and mission trips. Additionally, he prays for his current students as well. 

While music still plays a big role in his life, he keeps his faith as the root focus. 

“I hope my students understand and they feel that respect from me as a teacher that I care about their well-being,” Wright said. “I care about how they feel. I care about what’s going on with them emotionally and academically.”

From the student stand point, Wright has been said to show Jesus’ light through his attitude in class and as a director.

Holding himself to the standard of being like Jesus, Wright makes it a priority to push himself to teach the correct music and remember God’s message.

“He’s a very bright soul,” senior Matthew Moreno said. “With people, that’s a common trend if you follow Jesus. If you know the truth, you tend to be more happy. You tend to show a lot of those characteristics.”

One of Wright’s favorite parts about orchestra is that it teaches kids that you cannot be full without each other, much like his religious beliefs.

In Wright’s opinion, music teaches that there is always something bigger. And similarly, Wright feels that Christianity shows that God is what’s bigger.

“It’s kind of the same mission of helping kids discover something bigger, and that’s what music allows us to do,” Wright said. “It discovers something bigger. It’s not just my violin part. It’s the sum total of all the parts together that make the music grand.”

Overall, Wright’s biggest mission as a director is to show his students God’s grace through the way he acts with them and loves them.

“Before break, I will tell them (orchestra students), ‘You’re loved. You’re wanted here. You’re accepted here. You’re part of this,’” Wright said. “Because I think some kids probably need to hear that they are accepted in a place and that there is someone who watches out for them.”