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Curt Thompson

Violin

Curt Thompson

Violinist Curt Thompson performs throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia as a concerto soloist, recitalist, concertmaster, and chamber musician in such prestigious venues as Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Salle Gaveau (Paris), Teatro Naçional de Costa Rica (San José), Shanghai Concert Hall, and others. Thompson’s debut recording of the violin sonatas by Charles Ives (Naxos) has received outstanding reviews worldwide, including Gramophone, The Strad, The Wire, and The New York Times, where it was included in a listing of “Critics’ Favorites” and was called “…a hole in one…perfectly demonstrating [Ives’] spicy, earthy rawness and appeal….” The recording has been broadcast world wide, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, National Public Radio’s Performance Today, WRR 101.1 FM (Dallas), WGBH 89.7 (Boston), Aspen Public Radio and others. His live performance of the four Ives sonatas was included in the annual “‘Top 10’ Musical Events of the Year” listing in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Concerto appearances include the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra (China), Medellí­n Philharmonic Orchestra (Colombia), the Corpus Christi, San Angelo, Las Colinas, Arlington and Garland symphonies, and the Texas Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Thompson has been a featured artist in the Copland/Shostakovich Festival (Rio de Janeiro), the Festival de Primavera (Oaxaca, Mexico), the Seventh Centennial Festival of Villarobledo (Spain), Inter-Harmony International Music Festival (Hinterzarten, Germany) and Clefworks Chamber Music Festival (Montgomery, AL). In addition, he is Concertmaster of the Corpus Christi, Las Colinas and San Angelo Symphonies, the Texas Chamber Orchestra, and has served as Concertmaster of the Fort Worth Symphony (by special invitation) and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra (Italy).

Curt Thompson is Founder and Executive Director of the Mimir Chamber Music Festival, which will celebrate its 17th season in Fort Worth July 3-11, and its second season in Melbourne Sept. 1-7, 2014. Featuring an array of internationally recognized performing artists, the festival also instructs Young Artists from across the globe. Mimir has enjoyed critical acclaim by North Texas audiences and media. The Dallas Morning News (six times), Fort Worth Star-Telegram (five) and TheaterJones.com (three) have cited Mimir in their annual “‘Top 10’ Musical Events of the Year” listings and it has been noted in The New York Times and Travel & Liesure magazine as a summer hot spot.

Thompson joined the faculty of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music/Victorian College of the Arts in 2012. He has served on the faculties of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he was selected as the sabbatical replacement for Russian virtuoso Nelli Shkolnikova, and for fifteen years at the TCU School of Music (Fort Worth, Texas). He has given master classes and presentations at several prestigious institutions including the Royal Academy of Music (London), The Juilliard School, the Bulgarian State Academy of Music, El Escorial Conservatory (Spain), Beijing Central Conservatory, Shenyang Conservatory, and the University of Sãu Paulo (Brazil). In 2007 he served on the jury of the Pancho Vladigerov International Violin Competition (Plovdiv, Bulgaria).

Curt holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees and the prestigious Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rice University. His principal teachers include Nelli Shkolnikova, Sergiu Luca, Rostislav Dubinsky (chamber music) and Stanley Ritchie (Baroque violin).