Thomas Canning was born in Brookville, Pennsylvania in 1911. He received the Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College in 1936 and the Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music of University of Rochester in 1940. At Oberlin he studied composition with Normand Lockwood and at Eastman with Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. From 1936 to 1941 he taught at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa and in 1945 and 1946 he taught at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In 1944 he composed Fantasy on a Hymn Tune by Justin Morgan. He was on the music faculty of the Royal Conservatory of Music at the University of Toronto during the 1946-1947 academic season and from there went to Eastman School of Music where he taught until 1963. Canning taught at West Virginia University from 1963