Thomas Amoriello Jr. was born in Philadelphia and became interested in the guitar as a fan of the “neo-classical” heavy metal playing styles of Yngwie Malmsteen and Randy Rhoads at the age of 12. He later traded in his Les Paul for a classical guitar and has made teaching children the guitar his mission in life. He currently is the NAfME Guitar Council Chair and has had over 25 guitar advocacy articles published in Tempo Magazine: The Official Magazine of the NJMEA. During his time on the NJMEA board he has co-directed 5 guitar festivals and drafted the proposal to approve the first ever NJMEA Honors Guitar Ensemble. Tom is an advocate for class guitar programs in public schools and has been a clinician presenting his “Guitar for the K-12 Music Educator” for the Guitar Foundation of America Festivals in Charleston, SC and Columbus, GA., Lehigh Valley Guitar Festival in Bethlehem, PA, NAfME 2011 Biennial Conference in Baltimore, as well as other state music education conferences in New Jersey, New York and Virginia. Tom currently teaches at Reading Fleming Intermediate School and Hunterdon Academy of Arts, both in Flemington.

He has earned a Master of Music Degree in Classical Guitar Performance from Shenandoah Conservatory (Winchester, VA 1998) and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Rowan University (Glassboro, NJ 1996). His primary teachers were Alice Artzt, Glenn Caluda, David Crittenden and Joseph Mayes. He has studied in the master classes of Benjamin Verdery in Maui, Hawaii and Angelo Gilardino in Biella, Italy.

He has twice been featured on episodes of Classroom Closeup-NJ which aired on New Jersey Public Television. He was also featured in the February 2010 issue of Classical Guitar Magazine (UK).

He is the author of the children’s picture books; A Journey to Guitarland with Maestro Armadillo & Ukulele Sam Strums in the Sand, both available from Black Rose Writing.  

He recently made two vinyl record releases on the H42 Records label  of Hamburg, Germany featuring former members of Black Sabbath, Whitesnake, Dio, Ozzy Osbourne, Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Rising Force and more. Tom resides in Lambertville, NJ.