Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Johannes Brahms, A Favorite of Violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins, Sketched By Her Mom

["Brahms: A Sketch by Kelly's Mom"]

On September 29, 2010 AfriClassical posted: “Kelly Hall-Tompkins: 'hundreds of listeners at the Holy Apostles roared with exuberance and affirmation.'” Kelly had recruited five other musicians to join her in the 45th Music Kitchen, which took place at the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen in New York City on May 26, 2010. The post quoted Kelly:

“Dear Friends of Music Kitchen,
This afternoon's performance, the 45th, since inception, was a glorious example of why I do this. Not only did we have an extraordinary ensemble of some of the finest classical musicians in the world, performing one of the greatest and my favorite works of chamber music ever created- the Brahms G major sextet, but our hundreds of listeners at the Holy Apostles roared with exuberance and affirmation - There's not a Baptist church anywhere in America that has ever had a bigger 'amen corner' than we had today!”

We wrote to Kelly Hall-Tompkins: “You not only thoroughly communicated your excitement at the 45th Music Kitchen; you also described the Brahms G major Sextet in such passionate terms that I interrupted my work on the post so I could place an online order for a copy of Yehudi Menuhin's 2003 EMI recording of the Sextet!”

In a subsequent email Kelly said: “Well I would be remiss if I did not share with you that Brahms is my favorite chamber music composer and one of my top overall composers, such that my Mom did this portrait sketch for me about 3 years ago. It is one of my most prized possessions and hangs in my practice studio. Only her second piece ever! The first was when she was 18!”

We asked Kelly if we could post her Mom's sketch of Brahms. After consulting with her Mom, she agreed. We thought our readers would be interested to learn that a violinist's appreciation for Johannes Brahms had motivated her Mom to sketch his likeness in what is only the second portrait of her life. Our thanks to Kelly Hall-Tompkins and her Mom!





No comments:

Post a Comment