Black Voices I: The Piano’s Voice

music of
Irene Britton Smith
Franz Josef Haydn
George Walker
Joel Thompson
Frédéric Chopin

Gregory Thompson’s recital features seldom-heard contributions to the concert piano repertoire by distinguished Black American composers Irene Britton Smith, Joel Thompson and George Walker. 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of  George Walker, who was the first black composer to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize. 

Pianist Gregory Thompson is widely known as a solo and collaborative artist in the United States, Europe and Asia. Following his Carnegie Hall debut, the New York Times praised his “intuitive playing”, and his ability to “make a melodic line sing and inflect it with delicate rubato effects.”

Thompson’s international performance credits include concerts at Marmolle Hall in Salzburg, at the Atelier Concert Series in Paris and the Teatro Signorelli in Cortona, Italy. He has played at New York City’s Weill and Zankel Recital Halls, as well as at Steinway Galleries in North Carolina and Georgia. His varied repertoire ranges from Beethoven and Schubert to Prokofiev, including the celebrated Black American composers George Walker, Adolphus Hailstork, Joel Thompson and Irene Britton Smith. He has collaborated with several internationally-renowned vocal artists, including Grace Bumbry, Allan Glassman and Russell Thomas, and with woodwind faculty members at the Salzburg Mozarteum. His concerto performances include appearances with the Baltimore Symphony, the South Carolina Philharmonic and the Charlotte Philharmonic Orchestra.

Dr. Thompson holds degrees from Peabody Conservatory, Limestone College and the University of South Carolina. A committed educator, he has served on the faculties of colleges and universities in Ohio and the Carolinas, including Winston-Salem State University, a historically black public university founded in 1892.

Visit Gregory Thompson online.

EVENT FLYER HERE

Free parking and admission.