Kelly Hall-Tompkins is one of New York City’s most in-demand violinists, whose dynamic career spans solo, chamber, and orchestral performance. In 2010 Ms. Hall-Tompkins was signed to the roster of CAMI- Columbia Artists Management and also became a significant collaborating partner with violinist/composer Mark O’Connor in his Double Violin Concerto and also as first violinist of the new O’Connor String Quartet. Appearances for the double concerto launched with the Evansville Philharmonic (IN) and the Quartet has performed across the US at the Tanglewood Music Festival, Boulder and Ventura (CA) Music Festivals as well as venues in New York, Chicago, Seattle, El Paso, Ohio and Tennessee. Ms. Hall-Tompkins was winner of a 2003 Naumburg International Violin Competition Honorarium Prize as well as a Concert Artists Guild Career Grant in 1996, leading to numerous solo recitals in New York and the surrounding area. In the winter of 2007, Ms. Hall-Tompkins was invited by actress Mia Farrow and conductor George Matthew to be soloist in Carnegie Hall for a Benefit for the Victims of Darfur, hosted by Ms. Farrow. On stage behind her was an orchestra comprised of musicians from every major orchestra in the world to raise awareness and funds for the cause. Ms. Hall-Tompkins has been soloist with the Dallas Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of New York, Evansville Philharmonic, Western Piedmont Symphony, Greenville Symphony, Philharmonic of Uruguay, Monmouth Symphony, the Gateways Festival Orchestra, the Festival of the Atlantic Orchestra, and the Atlanta University Orchestra and her performances in recital have been featured on several occasions on the McGraw-Hill Young Artist Showcase, broadcast in New York by WQXR. Her solo performances also include New York City (Weill Hall), Washington, DC (National Academy of Sciences and The Phillips Collection), Chicago (Dame Myra Hess Series, broadcast live by WFMT Radio), Baltimore (Peggy and Yale Gordon Trust); and, through a special grant from the IBM Corporation, at the Peace Center in Greenville, South Carolina. She commissioned a new work for violin and percussion from eminent German composer Siegfried Matthus, premiering the composition at the Pine Mountain Music Festival in Michigan in the summer of 2002. Also in 2002 Ms. Hall-Tompkins released her debut CD recording, funded by the Mellon Foundation, featuring the Kodaly duo, Brahms d minor Sonata and the Ravel Tzigane. Ms. Hall-Tompkins released her second CD, entitled “In My Own Voice” in 2008 and was subsequently presented by Barnes and Noble Lincoln Triangle in New York and in Orlando, Florida. Press reviews tout the disc with “Expressively wrought with rich tone colors as it works up to an intense flowing finale… searing intensity… In brief, she compels you to listen” American Record Guide. And “technically confidant and strongly shaped readings of challenging unaccompanied works.” -Anthony Burton, BBC Music Magazine
Ms. Hall-Tompkins is a member of the Florida-based Ritz Chamber Players, including concerts in residence at Jacksonville’s Times Union Center for the Performing Arts, Ravinia Chicago’s “Rising Stars Series,” New York at Lincoln Center’s Allen Room, Amelia Island and Madison Festivals and Baltimore in collaboration with BSO concertmaster and string principals, Albuquerque, Green Lake Wisconsin among other venues. Live broadcasts include Chicago on WFMT’s Jewel Box Series, New York and worldwide on New York City’s WNYC and BBC, and historic Trinity Church at Wall Street. She has performed at the Garth Newel Music Center, Chamber Music South Dakota, Bargemusic, live on WNYC’s “Soundcheck”, and Raleigh Chamber Music Guild. Ms. Hall-Tompkins has performed and studied at many of the major festivals in the U.S. and abroad, including Tanglewood, Aspen, the Quartet Program, the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany, the Spoleto Festival in Italy, and the last New York String Orchestra Seminar under the direction of Alexander Schneider.
Ms. Hall-Tompkins’ distinguished orchestral career has included extensive touring in the United States and internationally with the renowned Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, including performances in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Japan, Singapore, Scotland and a recording with countertenor Andreas Scholl. She has also performed over 150 performances as a substitute with the New York Philharmonic, under conductors including Kurt Masur, Leonard Slatkin, Andre Previn, Charles Dutoit and Valery Gergiev, stemming from her success as a finalist in auditions held by the orchestra in 1994. In 2010 Ms. Hall-Tompkins became co-concertmaster of the Philadelphia-based Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra and in 2007, concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of New York, which performed its debut concert in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in the Fall ’07 with Ms. Hall-Tompkins also as soloist. In 1999 she won auditions held by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and was subsequently appointed to the orchestra’s First Violin section.
Passionate chamber musician and humanitarian, in 2005 Ms. Hall-Tompkins founded and directs a charity series called Music Kitchen-Food for the Soul, bringing chamber music performances to NYC Homeless Shelters. She has presented over 50 concerts with over 100 artists including Emanuel Ax, Albrecht Mayer, Jeff Ziegler and Rene Marie and has been featured in The New York Times, on CBSNews.com and ABCNews.com, plus Strings Magazine, Chamber Music America Magazine, Spirituality and Health Magazine, Columbia University Radio and cable’s Hallmark Channel.
A native of Greenville, South Carolina, Ms. Hall-Tompkins began her violin studies at age nine. She earned a Master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music under the mentorship of Glenn Dicterow, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. While there, she was concertmaster of both of the school’s orchestras. Prior to that, she earned a Bachelor of Music degree with honors in violin performance with a minor in French from the Eastman School of Music studying with Charles Castleman. While at Eastman she won the school’s prestigious Performer’s Certificate Competition, several scholarship awards from the New York Philharmonic, and was invited to perform chamber music on the school’s Kilbourn Concert Series with members of the faculty. An avid polyglot, Ms. Hall-Tompkins studies and speaks seven languages in conjunction with her active international performance career. She lives in New York City with her husband Joe and their dog Billy.