Thomas began composing in his early teens, encouraged and supported by many of the music teachers at his school. After joining the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s junior department on viola, he commenced formal composition studies. His second year saw him enter the conservatoire’s composition competition where he was awarded first prize. The work, Nonet was adjudicated by the then Head of Composition, Gordon McPherson, who, upon hearing the piece, offered Thomas a place to study composition at the conservatoire the following summer. However, Thomas ultimately decided to focus on performance.

Composition lay dormant until the pandemic in 2020. He returned to writing music, premiering a new work, Wisp, in his masters recital at the Royal Academy of Music. The following year, Thomas composed Beacon for string quartet. This was performed by the Consone Quartet in the National Centre for Early Music Composition Competition, where he was selected as finalist.