Kelly Hall-Tompkins, Violin
A note from the Maestro: Our second concert in the 130th Season Masterworks series focuses on orchestral Americana with compositional styles that are as wide-reaching as the American frontier. Dvořák is well known for the style in which he culls musical material from traditional folk sources, and the Symphony No. 8 is laden with tunes he heard while composing in America. The new violin concerto by Wynton Marsalis blends jazz, blues and other classic folk styles into a canvas of American life and dreams and, in the music of William Grant Still, we hear a composer influenced by melodies and motives from the black American community as he skillfully weaves this material into traditional symphonic forms.
Program
William Grant Still | Festive Overture
Wynton Marsalis | Violin Concerto in D major
Kelly Hall-Tompkins, violin
Antonín Dvořák | Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88
About the Guest Artist:
Winner of a Naumburg International Violin Competition Honorarium Prize, Concert Artists Guild Career Grant, Sphinx Medal of Excellence and featured in the Smithsonian Museum for African-AmericanHistory, KELLY HALL-TOMPKINS is a trailblazing and innovative violin soloist entrepreneur who has been acclaimed by the New York Times as “the versatile violinist who makes the music come alive,” for her “tonal mastery” (BBC Music Magazine) and as New York Times “New Yorker of the Year.”
A new collaboration with 5-time Emmy-winning composer Jeff Beal features a new violin concerto written for her; The collaboration also features celebrated conductor Leonard Slatkin. Ms. Hall-Tompkins and Maestro Slatkin performed the Sold-Out world premiere with the St. Louis Symphony to critical acclaim: “The world premiere was a treat even by the rarified standards of world premieres…masterful… shepremiered the concerto with dynamic intensity in her SLSO debut.” Kelly Hall-Tompkins also performed the European premiere with Maestro Slatkin and the Orquesta of Gran Canaria, Spain this spring. The first American artist to perform in China after the pandemic, Ms. Hall-Tompkins received a Chinese “Rare Talent Visa” to perform as soloist with the Shanghai Symphony. Past appearances also include asco-soloist in Carnegie Hall with Glenn Dicterow and conductor Leonard Slatkin, in London with Chineke! at Queen Elizabeth Hall with conductor Michael Morgan, Brevard Festival with Keith Lockhart, recitalistat Lincoln Center, soloist as the Inaugural Artist in Residence with the Cincinnati Symphony, and with the Symphonies of Baltimore, Dallas, Jacksonville, Oakland, Greensboro, recitals in Paris, New York, Toronto, Washington, Chicago, and festivals of Tanglewood, Ravinia, Santa Fe, Gateways, and in France, Germany and Italy. At home with genres beyond classical music, Ms. Hall-Tompkins is the first soloist to perform the Wynton Marsalis Violin Concerto after the original dedicatée, with over 16 performances to date, including the upcoming Lucerne Festival Premiere of the work this summer, and opening nights with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, California and Elgin Symphonies; additionally, she also toured for 5 years with American Roots-style Violinist/Composer Mark O’Connor.
She was “Fiddler”/Violin Soloist of the Grammy/Tony-nominated Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof. Inspired by her experience, she commissioned and developed the first ever Fiddler solo disc of all new arrangements, The Fiddler Expanding Tradition, which is featured alongside her recital in Kiev, Ukraine in the recent documentary “Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles” on the 55-year history of the musical. Ms. Hall-Tompkins’ Imagination Project was called “groundbreaking” by STRINGS Magazine and has received over 1 million views on YouTube to date. Actively performing virtually throughout the pandemic, numerous projects include premiering 4 pieces written for her, creating and being invited to unique collaborations, including a co- composition with Tony-nominated actor Daniel Watts, Echo: Shostakovich in Catharsis with aerial dancer Alexandra Peter and Frisson Films, Gil Shaham’s Gilharmonic, and with WQXR as part of the inaugural Artist Propulsion Lab.
As founder of Music Kitchen-Food for the Soul, Kelly Hall-Tompkins is a pioneer of social justice in classical music, bringing top artists in over 100 concerts with over 200 top artists, in homeless shelters, reaching over 30,000 clients coast to coast from New York to Los Angeles, and in internationally in Paris, France. Through Music Kitchen, Ms. Hall-Tompkins commissioned 15 award- winning composers, with support from Carnegie Hall, to set the prose feedback comments of shelter clients into a composite song cycle entitled, Forgotten Voices, premiered individually at homeless shelters around New York City, then in its entirety in a Sold-Out World Premiere in Association with Carnegie Hall in March 2022.
Ms. Hall-Tompkins is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, recipient of two Honorary Doctorates (Manhattan School of Music and Adelphi University), Distinguished Alumni and Centennial Awards (Eastman School of Music) and is a published author contributor to Music and Human Rights on Routledge Press.
TICKETS:
This is currently sold as part of a 2025-2026 Season Subscription Package.
Single tickets go on sale August 7, 2025.
DIGITAL ACCESS – Watch online!
Masterworks concerts will be available online for up to 2 weeks after the concert.
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