Anderson worked at Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma, as a music professor from 1958 to 1963. There, he became the chair of the music department. He was professor of music at Tennessee State University from 1963 to 1969.[7] While there, he was named composer in residence with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He had a three-year tenure with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra from 1968 to 1971.[8]
During the period of time he spent with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Anderson orchestrated Scott Joplin's opera, Treemonisha,[8] originally written in 1911. In 1972, Joplin's opera appeared on stage in full for the very first time. The first opera that Anderson wrote was Soldier Boy. This work was based on a libretto by Leon Forrest, who was a good friend of Anderson. Soldier Boy was commissioned by Indiana University.[9] After it, came other works, such as Walker which was about David Walker, an anti-slavery activist.[10]
In 1972, Anderson was hired as a professor of music and department chair at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, where he worked until 1990.
In 2002, the Cantata Singers and Ensemble commissioned Anderson to create an oratorioSlavery Documents 2. The work was based on Donald Sur's Slavery Documents and Loren Schweininger's The Southern Debate Over Slavery.[10]
Anderson also taught at institutions in France, Brazil, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany.
Anderson has three children: Janet, Anita, and Thomas J. Anderson, III (who also goes by "T.J."), is a poet and professor of English at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. The younger Anderson is married to Pauline Kaldas, a poet, author, and fellow English professor at Hollins University.
