Thomas Charles Marshall is from Portlaoise, Ireland.

He studied classical music from childhood at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Schola Cantorum at St. Finian's College, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath learning piano, flute and later pipe organ.

From 1991 to 1994, he was organ scholar at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, and read the music tripos.

His first contact with the Satsumabiwa was in 1994 when he met the biwa master Yoshinori Fumon while working for a year in Japan. He decided to remain in Japan and studied with Fumon until the Fumon's death at the age of 92 in 2003. Marshall has performed biwa both within Japan and abroad.

In September 2008. Marshall returned to Ireland to continue pipe organ studies. He is doing a Masters in Music Performance at the Royal Irish Academy with David Adams. His dissertation is focused on the biwa and he is currently researching the development of the satsuma biwa notational system at the turn of the last century.

He is Director of Music at St. Ann's Church, Dawson Street, Dublin.