The Penguin Guide to Jazz called him "an outstandingly gifted trumpeter," colleague
Dave Douglas "a European master," and critic Steve Lake "our new trumpet genius."

He was awarded the prestigious SWF-Jazzpreis (1990), and both the Jazz-Art-Preis
and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik with Heberer/Manderscheid.
As a member of Misha Mengelberg’s Instant Composers Pool (ICP), he won the
Down Beat Critics Poll in 2002, and the Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik
with Aki Takase's Fats Waller Band in 2004.

Thomas Heberer, born 1965 in Schleswig, Germany, started playing the trumpet at age 11; from 1984 to 1987, he studied under Manfred Schoof at the Cologne conservatory.

He has performed on 5 continents, was a part-time lecturer at the conservatory
Frankfurt/Main (1993-97) and a guest lecturer at the Banff Centre in 2007, served as
Germany’s representative with the European Broadcast Union Big Band in 1998,
recorded over 50 CDs as a sideman and has a dozen CDs under his own leadership.

For twelve years, beginning in 1995, Thomas served as a member of the regular band
supporting talk show host and entertainer Harald Schmidt.

The Tanztheater Wuppertal uses Stella and Mouth (two CDs released under the pseudonym
T.O.M.) in the choreographies titled Fuer die Kinder von gestern, heute und morgen (2002) and Ten Chi (2004), both created by Pina Bausch.

Thomas has been living in New York City since 2008.

Working ensembles past and present include:
- Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra
- European Jazz Ensemble
- European Trumpet Summit
- Heberer/Manderscheid
- Instant Composers Pool (ICP)
- Lip Lab
- Sloops!
- S S H
- T.O.M.
- Tome XX www.dirkraulf.de

Collaborations past and present include:
Muhal Richard Abrams, Robby Ameen, Han Bennink, Willem Breuker, Peter Broetzmann,
Anthony Braxton, Eugene Chadbourne, Mel Collins, Sussan Deyhim, Dave Douglas,
Gerd Dudek, Peter Evans, Cor Fuhler, Frank Gratkowski, Barry Guy, Christoph Haberer,
Gabriele Hasler, Ali Haurand, Gerry Hemingway, Terumasa Hino, Carl Ludwig Huebsch,
Guus Janssen, Maria Joao, Howard Johnson, Ekkehard Jost, Achim Kaufmann,
Paul van Kemenade, Frank Koellges, Joachim Kuehn, Steve Lacy, Oliver Lake,
Thomas Lehn, George Lewis, Paul Lovens, Rudi Mahall, Dieter Manderscheid,
Albert Mangelsdorff, Misha Mengelberg, Butch Morris, Bob Moses, David Moss,
Alphonse Mouzon, David Murray, Sunny Murray, Evan Parker, Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky,
Barre Phillips, Dirk Raulf, Enrico Rava, Michael Riessler, Carlo Rizzo, Roswell Rudd,
Alexander von Schlippenbach, Matthias Schubert, Frank Schulte, Elliott Sharp,
Ramesh Shotham, Tomasz Stanko, Norbert Stein, Bob Stewart, Markus Stockhausen,
Aki Takase, Ed Thigpen, Kenny Wheeler, Nate Wooley, Attila Zoller, John Zorn