Great Expectations

May 16 2006
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Samuel Thompson

Winner of a Participation Prize at the 2011 Padova International Music Competition (Italy), Samuel Thompson is a Baltimore-based violinist whose career spans solo, chamber music, orchestral and interdisciplinary performance and arts journalism. During the 2011/2012 season Samuel appeared with the Nathaniel Dett Chorale in Toronto's Koerner Hall via an invitation from Tanya Charles of the Gould String Quartet (Canada), Washington DC's critically acclaimed Great Noise Ensemble, in recital with Michelle Schumann during the inaugural season of the Pro Arts Collective's Metropolitan Classical Series in Austin, Texas, and onstage with the Carpetbag Theatre Ensemble at the August Wilson Center for African-American Culture in Pittsburgh in addition to orchestral performances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and with the Harrisburg, Knoxville, Roanoke and Delaware symphonies.

Samuel's performance during the 2011 Black Arts Movement (BAM) Festival in Austin resulted in immedate reengagement for the 2011/2012 season. During the 2010/2011 season he also performed Ryuichi Sakamoto's “Rain” in a performance for Musicians of Mercy, a collective of over seventy independent musicians and artists in the metropolitan Washington DC region. A seasoned performer, Samuel made his debut as soloist in 1998 with Robert Franz and the National Repertory Orchestra and has appeared with the Carolina Amadeus Players Chamber Orchestra, Cortlandt Chamber Orchestra, Orchard Park Symphony Orchestra and members of Orchestra X.

A sought-after recitalist and chamber musician, Samuel made his east coast debut at the New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas in a multimedia staged recital conceived and directed by Peter Webster, and has been presented in concert by Da Camera of Houston, Millennium Music Spotlight Series, Columbia Festival of the Arts in South Carolina, Chicago's Fazioli Salon Series under the auspices of Pianoforte Foundation Chicago and WFMT-FM, Kent State-Ashtabula Classical Concert Series, USC Cares: Renewal Through Music series at the University of South Carolina , the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Festival and the Museo Internato Ignoto in Padova, Italy. His chamber music partners include pianists Michelle Schumann and Stephen Carey, the Marian Anderson String Quartet and members of the West Shore Trio. Samuel has also appeared with performance artists and theatre companies at alternative performance spaces throughout the United States including DiverseWorks Artspace (Houston), the Old Ironworks Building (New Orleans), On The Boards (Seattle), Rockwood Music Hall (New York), Tucker's Blues (Dallas) and the Colony Theatre (Miami). In addition to appearing with the Carpetbag Theatre Ensemble during the 2008-2009 season, Samuel is also featured on the soundtrack of Rajni Shah Theatre's Dinner With America , a performance art piece that toured the United Kingdom and Spain in 2008.

Samuel has also been noted as a “thought-provoking and erudite writer” in response to his essays and program notes. In November 2011 Samuel was invited by Barbara Day Turner of the San Jose Chamber Orchestra to write a monthly column for the orchestra's newsletter. That column, titled “Other Notes”, debuted in January 2012 and featured interviews with artists including Talise Trevigne, Jennifer Kloetzel of the Cypress String Quartet and 2012 Menuhin Competition winner Kenneth Renshaw. In recent years Samuel has contributed to Strings Magazine , online industry magazine violinist.com and Nigel Kennedy Online .

Maintaining a sense of loyalty to the New Orleans musical community as he was a member of the Louisiana Philharmonic during the 2002-2003 season, Samuel organized and performed in benefit concerts immediately after Hurricane Katrina, his efforts becoming the subject of an article in the September 2007 International Musician . Mr. Thompson has been profiled by Strings Magazine, the Austin Chronicle, Fractured Atlas, Strings Magazine, Jan Herman's “Straight-Up” at Artsjournal.com, the Boston Globe, the San Antonio Express-News, Relevant Magazine, OSU Magazine and the Crescent City Chronicles, with his live performances and interviews being broadcast on WFMT-FM's “Fazioli Salon Series”, WSCI-FM's “Conversations with Joan”, KAHL-FM's “Sonny Melendez Show” and KOSU-FM's “Concerts from OSU”.

A native of Charleston, South Carolina, Samuel studied violin at both the University of South Carolina and Oklahoma State University. He earned the Master of Music degree from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where his teachers included Kenneth Goldsmith and Raphael Fliegel. Samuel has also participated in the Helen and Immanuel Olshan Texas Music Festival, the International Festival-Institute at Round Top, the National Orchestral Institute and Spoleto Festival USA. A semifinalist in the 2000 New World Symphony Concerto Competition, Samuel was a recipient of an Artistic Assistance Award from Alternate ROOTS made possible with funds from the Kresge Foundation, Open Society Foundations and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. He is a members of Alternate ROOTS and the American Federation of Musicians, and served as a member of the Maryland State Arts Council Grant Review Panel in 2012. Samuel plays a violin made in 1996 by Marilyn Wallin with a bow made by German bowmaker Sebastian Dirr.

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In response to Douglas Fisher’s recent post: This is a difficult one to address – I’m sure that as students we may have all gotten somewhat frustrated with spending a month learning two large orchestral works, but I now look back on those years and feel grateful when I play Brahms and Mahler Symphonies.

Many orchestral repertoire teachers do indeed go through large amounts of repertoire per semester, not only to assist their students with audition preparation but also to familiarize the students with what can be an overwhelming amount of music (I’m now on a break between two children’s concerts and the first rehearsal for the second of THREE programs – all different music – that will be presented this week).

I can also, as many of us can, thank Carl Topilow for the National Repertory Orchestra, during which attendees (who are selected from a large pool of applicants) play an average of two programs a week over a nine week period.

In response to Timothy Judd’s recent post: This is a very interesting question and of course, matters like this should be addressed between management and musicians. While I was a member of the New World Symphony Michael Tilson Thomas made a point of stressing that “our job” was to make sure that our business survived. Of course that does not answer the question, but I think that part of our “role” is to help create new audiences. Granted, I’m sure that we all in some way do that regardless of whether or not it is requested (offering comp tickets to our neighbors, acquaintances, doctors, etc.).

Having also worked in arts administration, I do have to say that fundraising is NOT easy, even for the best development directors. Being an orchestral musician, our “job” in relation to being fundraisers may be to simply be available and to do so both willingly and graciously, as the donors, ticket buyers (and I say this knowing some of the reality of operating budgets) are our public.

About the author

Samuel Thompson

Winner of a Participation Prize at the 2011 Padova International Music Competition (Italy), Samuel Thompson is a Baltimore-based violinist whose career spans solo, chamber music, orchestral and interdisciplinary performance and arts journalism. During the 2011/2012 season Samuel appeared with the Nathaniel Dett Chorale in Toronto's Koerner Hall via an invitation from Tanya Charles of the Gould String Quartet (Canada), Washington DC's critically acclaimed Great Noise Ensemble, in recital with Michelle Schumann during the inaugural season of the Pro Arts Collective's Metropolitan Classical Series in Austin, Texas, and onstage with the Carpetbag Theatre Ensemble at the August Wilson Center for African-American Culture in Pittsburgh in addition to orchestral performances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and with the Harrisburg, Knoxville, Roanoke and Delaware symphonies.

Samuel's performance during the 2011 Black Arts Movement (BAM) Festival in Austin resulted in immedate reengagement for the 2011/2012 season. During the 2010/2011 season he also performed Ryuichi Sakamoto's “Rain” in a performance for Musicians of Mercy, a collective of over seventy independent musicians and artists in the metropolitan Washington DC region. A seasoned performer, Samuel made his debut as soloist in 1998 with Robert Franz and the National Repertory Orchestra and has appeared with the Carolina Amadeus Players Chamber Orchestra, Cortlandt Chamber Orchestra, Orchard Park Symphony Orchestra and members of Orchestra X.

A sought-after recitalist and chamber musician, Samuel made his east coast debut at the New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas in a multimedia staged recital conceived and directed by Peter Webster, and has been presented in concert by Da Camera of Houston, Millennium Music Spotlight Series, Columbia Festival of the Arts in South Carolina, Chicago's Fazioli Salon Series under the auspices of Pianoforte Foundation Chicago and WFMT-FM, Kent State-Ashtabula Classical Concert Series, USC Cares: Renewal Through Music series at the University of South Carolina , the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Festival and the Museo Internato Ignoto in Padova, Italy. His chamber music partners include pianists Michelle Schumann and Stephen Carey, the Marian Anderson String Quartet and members of the West Shore Trio. Samuel has also appeared with performance artists and theatre companies at alternative performance spaces throughout the United States including DiverseWorks Artspace (Houston), the Old Ironworks Building (New Orleans), On The Boards (Seattle), Rockwood Music Hall (New York), Tucker's Blues (Dallas) and the Colony Theatre (Miami). In addition to appearing with the Carpetbag Theatre Ensemble during the 2008-2009 season, Samuel is also featured on the soundtrack of Rajni Shah Theatre's Dinner With America , a performance art piece that toured the United Kingdom and Spain in 2008.

Samuel has also been noted as a “thought-provoking and erudite writer” in response to his essays and program notes. In November 2011 Samuel was invited by Barbara Day Turner of the San Jose Chamber Orchestra to write a monthly column for the orchestra's newsletter. That column, titled “Other Notes”, debuted in January 2012 and featured interviews with artists including Talise Trevigne, Jennifer Kloetzel of the Cypress String Quartet and 2012 Menuhin Competition winner Kenneth Renshaw. In recent years Samuel has contributed to Strings Magazine , online industry magazine violinist.com and Nigel Kennedy Online .

Maintaining a sense of loyalty to the New Orleans musical community as he was a member of the Louisiana Philharmonic during the 2002-2003 season, Samuel organized and performed in benefit concerts immediately after Hurricane Katrina, his efforts becoming the subject of an article in the September 2007 International Musician . Mr. Thompson has been profiled by Strings Magazine, the Austin Chronicle, Fractured Atlas, Strings Magazine, Jan Herman's “Straight-Up” at Artsjournal.com, the Boston Globe, the San Antonio Express-News, Relevant Magazine, OSU Magazine and the Crescent City Chronicles, with his live performances and interviews being broadcast on WFMT-FM's “Fazioli Salon Series”, WSCI-FM's “Conversations with Joan”, KAHL-FM's “Sonny Melendez Show” and KOSU-FM's “Concerts from OSU”.

A native of Charleston, South Carolina, Samuel studied violin at both the University of South Carolina and Oklahoma State University. He earned the Master of Music degree from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where his teachers included Kenneth Goldsmith and Raphael Fliegel. Samuel has also participated in the Helen and Immanuel Olshan Texas Music Festival, the International Festival-Institute at Round Top, the National Orchestral Institute and Spoleto Festival USA. A semifinalist in the 2000 New World Symphony Concerto Competition, Samuel was a recipient of an Artistic Assistance Award from Alternate ROOTS made possible with funds from the Kresge Foundation, Open Society Foundations and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. He is a members of Alternate ROOTS and the American Federation of Musicians, and served as a member of the Maryland State Arts Council Grant Review Panel in 2012. Samuel plays a violin made in 1996 by Marilyn Wallin with a bow made by German bowmaker Sebastian Dirr.

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