Allan was Senior Lecturer in Ethnomusicology at Victoria University Wellington's School of Music (and then the New Zealand School of Music). He taught world music (Japanese taiko, Korean and Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern musics), Pacific Island music and dance, Afro-American music, and New Zealand Music. His courses in Ethnomusicology encouraged colleagues as well as many hundredes of students to consider music from an indigenous perspective.

While studying for a Diploma in Education at Dartington College, Devon, UK, in the early 1970's, Allan was inspired by the many interactions between various arts, including Asian traditions. He studied gamelan at the Tropen Museum in Amsterdam (where he first studied Gendhing Tukung, a piece that was to remain a favourite). In 1973, Allan undertook fieldwork in Cirebon, West Java, where the former royal court culture had left a distinctive heritage of music, dance and batik textiles. A remarkable opportunity arose to purchase an antique gamelan and Allan, aided and abetted by Jack Body, had this shipped to New Zealand. Opportunities were created for the music to be studied in cultural context, initially at Wellington Teachers' College, then at Victoria University's School of Music. In 1999, he and Jack Body organised the BEAT! Festival, celebrating 25 years of gamelan in New Zealand.

Allan was also deeply interested in teaching and researching the music of Pacific Islands where song is generally more significant than instrumental music, and dance is often part of the performed work. His fieldwork on music of the Pacific Islands resulted, notably, in two books - "Songs and Stories of Tokelau - an introduction to the cultural heritage" (co-authored with Ineleo Tuia and Judith Huntsman, Wellington, 1990), "New Song and Dance from the Central Pacific: Creating and performing the Fatele of Tokelau in the islands and in New Zealand" (New York, 1995), and a CD, "Vanuatu: Traditional Music of West Futuna" (Auvidis/UNESCO, 1998).

Allan Thomas' research interest in New Zealand music history developed during the 1990s, and he published "Music in New Zealand: A Reader from the 1940s" (Christchurch, 2000). Using the techniques of an ethnomusicologist, he completed a study of the music of a NZ town in the first post-War year (1946), which provided a view of music's contribution to the local community and the identity of local people. This was published as "Music is Where You Find It - Music in the town of Hawera, 1946 - an historical ethnography" (Wellington, 2004). He also documented New Zealand versions of calls and chants - auctioneers, sports commentators, housie calls and other such musical phenomena. In each of these research fields Allan sought to combine the standards of musicological scholarship with ethnomusicological objectivity and participation. More recently he co-editted "Jazz Aotearoa: Notes towards a New Zealand history" with Richard Hardie, a book described as ' a the first step in documenting the history and great moments of improvised music in this land.' You can hear Allan and Richard discussing this book on Radio New Zealand's 'The Arts on Sunday' programme here. Despite declining health, Allan also recently completed work with Richard Nunns on a book on taonga puoro.

World Music is Where we Found It: Essays by and for Allan Thomas (a festschrift edited by Wendy Pond and Paul Wolffram) was launched on 5 November 2011. It contains Allan’s unpublished essays, as well as new articles by colleagues. You can hear a review of it by Ian Chapman on Radio NZ National here.

Allan was awarded the prestigious KBB Music CANZ (Composers Association of New Zealand) Citation for Services to New Zealand music on 5 March 2011. Read the article in the Victoria News.

Picture: Allan Thomas teaching gamelan at the Indonesian Embassy in Fitzherbert Tce (Evening Post, 23 June 1975)