Thies Roorda studied at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague with Paul Verhey and in the United States with the renowned Geoffrey Gilbert.

He is emeritus flautist of the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and a prolific player of chamber music in various kinds and styles. At present he is dedicating himself in particular to music of the early 20th century, which recently resulted in recording projects of late romantic music.

With Georgian pianist Nata Tsvereli, he recorded a CD ‘Beyond late Romanticism’, featuring works by Max Reger, Sigfrid Karg-Elert, Volkmar Andreae, Ernst von Dohnanyi and Frank Martin (world premiere of 2^nd Ballad for Flute and Piano) for DRC and a double CD ‘Sigfrid Karg-Elert, Complete works for Flute’ for NAXOS.

Several Dutch composers dedicated works to him, a/o.: Maarten Bon, Joep Straesser and Konrad Boehmer. But also foreign composers wrote for him, amongst whom Isang Yun and Jean Françaix. With the latter, he recorded the Divertimento for flute and piano, accompanied on the piano by the composer in person. 

Furthermore, he made CD recordings of works of Isang Yun and Giacinto Scelsi and Rudolf Escher.
As a teacher, he is especially known for the way he teaches the expressive qualities of the flute sound in all its aspects. His successful approach that allows his students to find their own ‘voice’ on the flute, resulted in a much sought after course on - as he likes to call it - the ‘Blow How’ of the flute. A course which acknowledges the role of the breathing apparatus in all motoric functions of the human body and approaches breath control in an integrated way. 

He taught master classes in Holland, and internationally in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Italy, Hungary, Portugal, Russia (St. Petersburg), Spain and Switzerland.