Tommy began his studies with members of Opera North and the City of Hull Music Service. During this time he established himself as a key player in all senior ensembles, winning Woodwind Player of the Year in 2014 and 2015, and Musician of the Year in 2015.

This was before gaining a scholarship to study at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire under the tutorage of Emmet Byrne (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra), George Caird and Jenni Phillips, as well as Anna Cooper (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra) for cor anglais. Performances with the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra have been numerous, including both principal oboe and cor anglais in concerts at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall and the Birmingham Hippodrome, and in January 2020 cor anglais in a performance of Strauss’ Oboe Concerto with Jonathan Kelly, solo oboist in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Tommy has played side by side with members of the CBSO and Welsh National Opera and performed with the CBSO Youth Orchestra between 2016 and 2019. He also won second prize in the Winifred Micklam Prize in 2016, was a finalist in the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Woodwind Prize in 2018 and with his quintet Inventus, won the Leamington Music Prize in 2018 and used funds to tour internationally in Texas the next year. In 2019 Tommy played sub-principal oboe with Birmingham Royal Ballet.

After a further year of study at the RBC, Tommy moved to Manchester for his Master's at the Royal Northern College of Music as the ABRSM UK Postgraduate Scholar for the college. During his time in Manchester, Tommy has been successful in gaining places on the BBC Philharmonic and Hallé Orchestra Professional Experience Schemes, played side by side with members of Manchester Camerata, and in masterclasses with Dudu Carmel of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Diana Doherty of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. More recently Tommy undertook an Erasmus+ exchange at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse in Paris with David Walter, played side by side with members of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and in March 2022 performed with the CBSO in concert as sub-principal oboe. This is as well as winning the RNCM Rothwell Prize for Oboe and playing the cor anglais part for Shostakovich's Eighth Symphony in Bridgewater Hall.

Since completing his Master's, Tommy has recorded with the BBC Philharmonic, played solo concerts with piano at the Bridgewater Hall, taken part in the coveted Britten Pears Young Artists programme at Snape Maltings and, most recently, toured to Neom, Saudi Arabia with Manchester Camerata.