Noted for taking audiences to “a place of calm and beauty” (Blackbook Magazine) and the “excellence and exuberance” of his playing (Charleston Today), Samuel Thompson enjoys a career that includes performance, education, journalism and arts administration.
Lenten Special Music Sunday
Join us at the Barnes Foundation in celebration of Women's History Month and the 20th anniversary of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship! Our program includes Anna Clyne's beautiful and energetic "Dance" featuring the luminous playing of cellist Inbal Segev and Brahms Symphony No. 3.
In a once-in-a-lifetime experience, Michael Francis leads TFO’s first-ever performance of Wagner’s The Ring Without Words. Wagner’s Ring cycle of operas typically takes about 15 hours to perform over several days, but this version by Lorin Maazel is an ingenious synthesis of all the greatest music – including Ride of the Valkyries – into an orchestral tour de force lasting just over an hour. We will provide the narrative onscreen so you can follow along with the epic saga. Rounding out the program is Dejan Lazic in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20, a powerful, dramatic work that perfectly sets up the journey through the Wagner.
Take in the sounds of the Richmond Symphony at the Heritage Amphitheater while surrounded by the beauty of Pocahontas State Park. Gates open one hour before show time. Admission is free. Parking fee required at all times.
This event is sponsored by Friends of Pocahontas State Park and Chesterfield County Parks and Recreation.
For over seven decades, musicians from all over the world have gathered each summer to play chamber music and to grow as musicians. What attracts these musicians, and brings them back, is the love of playing chamber music, the chance to learn from world-class performers and teachers, and the joy of seeing old friends and making new ones.
After more than sixty years at Bennington College in Vermont, the Chamber Music Conference celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2022 at its new home on the campus of Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. The Conference returns to Colgate in 2023.
National Philharmonic created its wildly successful Summer String Institutes in 1998 to nurture the skills and talents of young musicians and encourage their participation in classical music now and throughout their lives. This summer, join National Philharmonic principal players and other distinguished faculty for a challenging and exciting week of chamber and orchestral music. Join us for a week long journey focused on enriching the orchestral, chamber, and solo musician. While Summer String Institute students work on ambitious repertoire to develop true professionalism, they also enjoy camaraderie and the adventure of creating great music.
The experimental and interactive, bilingual performance is based on the last eleven poems, Sonnets of Dark Love, by the Spanish poet Garcia Lorca. The poems were banned for 50 years after his assassination in 1936. The poems are fused with personal narratives and text from Lillian Hellman's The Children Hours and Oscar Wilde by Leslie and Sewell Stokes, both written around the time of Lorca's assassination. The music is composed and arranged by Daniel de Jesus. Green, How I Want You Green a performance by David Antonio Cruz, Jennifer Jade Ledesna, Diego Carvajal Peñaranda, Lisa Strum and musicians, Daniel de Jesus and Samuel Thompson. Guest performances by Elia Alba and Kharis Kennedy. All music is composed by Daniel de Jesus.
Opera@Morgan presents: The Brilliance of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Scenes from L'amant anomyme (Anonymous Lover): Chevalier de Saint-Georges and scenes from the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
This dynamic Christmas celebration features glorious music performed by a 100-voice choir, full orchestra/band totaling 60 instrumentalists, plus 30 dancers and actors. Noted gospel legend Yolanda Adams will be the special guest. Other performers will be selected from top contemporary classical and gospel artists. Concert will be conducted by noted staff director, Theodore Thorpe III.
Samuel has performed in venues including The REACH at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), August Wilson African-American Cultural Center (Pittsburgh), Wortham Theatre Center (Houston) and Koerner Hall (Toronto) in addition to concerts and recitals in cities including New Haven, Austin, Chicago, Miami, and both Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina. During the 2018-2019 season, Samuel appeared as soloist with Daniel Spalding and the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey for the east coast premiere of Florence Price’s First Violin Concerto, and later appeared as soloist in Bill Barclay’s play “The Black Mozart” which received its premiere in August 2019 at the Tanglewood Music Center’s Linde Center for Learning. Equally comfortable in the orchestral realm, Samuel’s orchestral career began in Houston, Texas where he was a founding member of John Axelrod’s Orchestra X and a contracted substitute with the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra. He later joined the New World Symphony and worked under conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Donald Runnicles, Sergiu Commissiona, Marin Alsop, Hugh Wolff and Manfred Honeck. During the 2002-2003 season Samuel was a member of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and served as concertmaster of the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre from 2008-2010.
Noted for taking audiences to “a place of calm and beauty” (Blackbook Magazine) and the “excellence and exuberance” of his playing (Charleston Today), Samuel Thompson enjoys a career that includes performance, education, journalism and arts administration.
Lenten Special Music Sunday
Join us at the Barnes Foundation in celebration of Women's History Month and the 20th anniversary of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship! Our program includes Anna Clyne's beautiful and energetic "Dance" featuring the luminous playing of cellist Inbal Segev and Brahms Symphony No. 3.
In a once-in-a-lifetime experience, Michael Francis leads TFO’s first-ever performance of Wagner’s The Ring Without Words. Wagner’s Ring cycle of operas typically takes about 15 hours to perform over several days, but this version by Lorin Maazel is an ingenious synthesis of all the greatest music – including Ride of the Valkyries – into an orchestral tour de force lasting just over an hour. We will provide the narrative onscreen so you can follow along with the epic saga. Rounding out the program is Dejan Lazic in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20, a powerful, dramatic work that perfectly sets up the journey through the Wagner.
Take in the sounds of the Richmond Symphony at the Heritage Amphitheater while surrounded by the beauty of Pocahontas State Park. Gates open one hour before show time. Admission is free. Parking fee required at all times.
This event is sponsored by Friends of Pocahontas State Park and Chesterfield County Parks and Recreation.
For over seven decades, musicians from all over the world have gathered each summer to play chamber music and to grow as musicians. What attracts these musicians, and brings them back, is the love of playing chamber music, the chance to learn from world-class performers and teachers, and the joy of seeing old friends and making new ones.
After more than sixty years at Bennington College in Vermont, the Chamber Music Conference celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2022 at its new home on the campus of Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. The Conference returns to Colgate in 2023.
National Philharmonic created its wildly successful Summer String Institutes in 1998 to nurture the skills and talents of young musicians and encourage their participation in classical music now and throughout their lives. This summer, join National Philharmonic principal players and other distinguished faculty for a challenging and exciting week of chamber and orchestral music. Join us for a week long journey focused on enriching the orchestral, chamber, and solo musician. While Summer String Institute students work on ambitious repertoire to develop true professionalism, they also enjoy camaraderie and the adventure of creating great music.
The experimental and interactive, bilingual performance is based on the last eleven poems, Sonnets of Dark Love, by the Spanish poet Garcia Lorca. The poems were banned for 50 years after his assassination in 1936. The poems are fused with personal narratives and text from Lillian Hellman's The Children Hours and Oscar Wilde by Leslie and Sewell Stokes, both written around the time of Lorca's assassination. The music is composed and arranged by Daniel de Jesus. Green, How I Want You Green a performance by David Antonio Cruz, Jennifer Jade Ledesna, Diego Carvajal Peñaranda, Lisa Strum and musicians, Daniel de Jesus and Samuel Thompson. Guest performances by Elia Alba and Kharis Kennedy. All music is composed by Daniel de Jesus.
Opera@Morgan presents: The Brilliance of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Scenes from L'amant anomyme (Anonymous Lover): Chevalier de Saint-Georges and scenes from the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
This dynamic Christmas celebration features glorious music performed by a 100-voice choir, full orchestra/band totaling 60 instrumentalists, plus 30 dancers and actors. Noted gospel legend Yolanda Adams will be the special guest. Other performers will be selected from top contemporary classical and gospel artists. Concert will be conducted by noted staff director, Theodore Thorpe III.
Samuel has performed in venues including The REACH at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), August Wilson African-American Cultural Center (Pittsburgh), Wortham Theatre Center (Houston) and Koerner Hall (Toronto) in addition to concerts and recitals in cities including New Haven, Austin, Chicago, Miami, and both Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina. During the 2018-2019 season, Samuel appeared as soloist with Daniel Spalding and the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey for the east coast premiere of Florence Price’s First Violin Concerto, and later appeared as soloist in Bill Barclay’s play “The Black Mozart” which received its premiere in August 2019 at the Tanglewood Music Center’s Linde Center for Learning. Equally comfortable in the orchestral realm, Samuel’s orchestral career began in Houston, Texas where he was a founding member of John Axelrod’s Orchestra X and a contracted substitute with the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra. He later joined the New World Symphony and worked under conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Donald Runnicles, Sergiu Commissiona, Marin Alsop, Hugh Wolff and Manfred Honeck. During the 2002-2003 season Samuel was a member of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and served as concertmaster of the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre from 2008-2010.
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