New York Today: Kelly Hall-Tompkins, a New Yorker of the Year
By ALEXANDRA S. LEVINE
Kelly Hall-Tompkins gives New Yorkers “food for the soul” through violin. CreditDave Sanders for The New York Times
This month, we asked readers to nominate candidates for New York Today’s New Yorkers of the Year, our annual celebration of citizens who have made a difference in the city over the last 12 months. We received more than 100 submissions, and this week we are highlighting a few of our exemplary neighbors.
In 'Fiddler on the Roof,' a Title Role Shared Onstage and Off
By MICHAEL COOPER
Pop quiz: Who plays the title role in the new Broadway revival of "Fiddler on the Roof"?
Not Danny Burstein, though he gets top billing as Tevye, the dairyman and father at the heart of the musical. But he is only a fiddler in the metaphorical sense of all the villagers of Anatevka, trying to scratch out a simple tune without breaking his neck.
There are really two artists who can lay claim to the title role: Jesse Kovarsky, the dancer who strikes Chagall-worthy poses onstage while playing the violin version of air guitar; and Kelly Hall-Tompkins, the versatile violinist who makes the music come alive in the orchestra pit.
"Kelly is the Fiddler on Broadway!" read an email she sent to friends after landing the gig as the orchestra's concertmaster, who plays all the solos.
click here for full article
Review Quotes
In My Own Voice- Kelly Hall-Tompkins
American Record Guide
Review By Gil French
Attention concert presenters! If this album reflects real life, you’d have a winner in presenting Kelly Hall-Tompkins. Here is an artist who deserves not just a hearing but fame itself. I’m always hesitant when reviewing an album produced by an artist unknown to me… but when it’s this good, then bully for her! Right from the start in the Kreisler (for violin alone), it’s clear that Hall-Tompkins is beyond technique. She has a firm presence and… she leans into phrases, giving them plenty of breathing room… The Ysaye and the Bach are choice examples of her solid grasp of structure and, thus, her powers of interpretation… The introduction to Sonata 3 is a long, anguished sigh with recitative-like rubato and long pauses, expressively wrought with rich tone colors as it works up to an intense flowing finale… searing intensity… In brief, she compels you to listen.click here for full article
Fanfare Magazine
Review By Robert Maxham
Kelly Hall-Tompkins plays Kreisler’s tribute to Eugène Ysaÿe…with a tonal mastery (on, and off, the 1732 Kaston Guarneri del Gesù), a technical command, and a strength of personality that justify the CD’s title… opulent intensity and cloaks the opening and ending in a similarly gauzy veil… almost inaudible in the opening, rising only later to sonorously dramatic, exotically mysterious statement, taking quite a few steps beyond Oistrakh’s atmosphere…Chaconne- the variations lead to and build upon each other in a coherent way. Hall-Tompkins manages, at her more relaxed pace, to reveal a great deal of the work’s splendor… Saint-Saëns’s piece, and Hall-Tomkins’s performance of it, demonstrates its timbral and general musical potential… Taken as a whole, the recital represents a significant achievement in stylistic adaptability…Recommended.click here for full article
BBC Music Magazine
Review By Anthony Burton
“In My Own Voice includes technically confidant and strongly shaped readings of challenging unaccompanied works by Kreisler and Ysaye as well as the great Bach Chaconne…Hall-Tompkins combines prettily with harpist Anna Reinersman in a delightfully inventive fantasia…and with pianist Craig Ketter she delivers sweetly played bonbons by Suk and William Grant Still.” click here for full article
Blog Critics Magazine
Review By Jeff Perkins
“Chaconne” by Johann Sebastian Bach...is an enthralling fifteen minute performance... Kelly Hall-Tompkins’ wonderful performance is remarkable... In My Own Voice contains a wide ranging choice of violin pieces each of which are played immaculately. Kelly Hall-Tompkins performs the technically demanding Bach and Ysaye compositions, alongside the beautifully haunting Saint Saens, the lively Kreisler, and the fascinating Baker variations with equal mastery and remarkable versatility. The beauty of the artiste, the instrument she graces, and the music chosen positively radiates from the recording.
AllMusic.com
Review By James Manheim
Confidence and control… Hall-Tompkins plays with obvious enthusiasm… everything's solid…and in her capacity for taking chances on unfamiliar material, Hall-Tompkins serves notice that she's a young violinist to be watched.
Strings Magazine
Food for the Soul
www.stringsmagazine.comArticle in Strings Magazine about Kelly's work with Music Kitchen.
Western Piedmont Symphony Masterworks II - 2007-2008
Review By W. Gerald Cochran
Samuel Barber's (1910-1981) Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 14, concluded the first half of the concert. Composed in 1939, the concerto is predominately lyrical, with a warm cantabile melody. It stands firmly in the neo-Romantic tradition for which Barber was exemplary. This concerto was, however, not without controversy. After completing the first two movements, the intended soloist complained that the music was not showy enough. Barber then composed the third movement as a virtuoso perpetual motion, which was immediately deemed unplayably difficult by the soloist! It took a student from the Curtis Institute of Music to demonstrate its playability.
The soloist for this performance was Kelly Hall-Tompkins, who had absolutely no difficulty in playing any of the movements. Ms. Hall-Tompkins, who grew up in Greenville, SC, now lives in New York City, where she leads a very busy solo, chamber music, and orchestral career. The concerto's first two movements sing from beginning to end, and Ms. Hall-Tompkins violin did a lot of singing, with a gorgeous voice and splendid tone. The final movement, marked Presto in moto perpetuo, stands in dramatic contrast, calling for violinistic acrobatics and ending with a brilliant flourish, all of which the soloist accomplished without a bit of hesitation and with great beauty. Her playing has been described by the New Jersey Star-Ledger as "…precise and well measured, very clean and sweet...one cannot argue with the technical expertise or fluency expressed..." and I certainly concur. I was so impressed that I would like to hear more - much more. She has released one CD, and I purchased the only available copy that I could find on the internet.
Chamber Music America Magazine
Someone's In the Kitchen - July 2, 2007
click here for full article [pdf]
Spirituality & Health
Music Kitchen Serves Soul Food - July 2, 2007
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GSO Concert was a Heartfelt Valentine
Greenville News, Arts and Travel Section
"Ms. Hall-Tompkins followed "The Magic" with some enchantment of her own in the composer's Violin Concerto No. 4, in D Major. In a sparkling display of violin mastery, she sang high and low with her 1740 Montagnana instrument, well attuned to Mozart's idioms with full tone and supple grace. ... Not content with graciously bowing for the third time the audience's applause returned her, she let loose feats of bowing legerdemain on her Baroque violin, fleshing a multitude of stunning colors as she encored Fritz Kreisler's 'Recitativ and Scherzo.' "
Violinist Goes with the Bow
Greenville News, Arts and Travel Section
"As a child living in Greenville, violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins wanted to follow in her mother’s footsteps and work with computers, she says in a recent phone interview. Instead, the vivacious 31-year-old lives in New York, plays in the first violin section of the New Jersey Symphony, tours all over the world with the famed Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and does solo gigs as time permits. That’s not to mention she recently produced her first CD, which is selling briskly from New York to Greenville."
Years Of Practice Elevate Black Violinist
Dallas Weekly Article, 3/6/03
"..her playing is precise and well measured, very clean and sweet...one cannot argue with the technical expertise or fluency expressed..."
Greenville Native has Notable Success
Greenville News
"Kelly Hall-Tompkins is a native of Greenville and an accomplished violinist. She currently lives in New York. Hall-Tompkins has performed as a soloist with the Greenville Symphony and as a stand in for the New York Philharmonic. Her self-titled album, which can be purchases on Amazon.com. She responds via e-mail."
Manhattan Times Profile
Manhattan Times
click here for full article [pdf]