[Samuel Thompson Photo: Levi Sim, SDesigns Photography]
Violinist’s Second Performance in Austin for the Pro Arts Collective
Features collaboration with Austin Chamber Music Center Artistic Director
Michelle Schumann
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Metropolitan AME Church
1101 East Tenth Street, Austin, Texas
3:00pm
Baltimore, MD – Violinist Samuel Thompson and pianist Michelle Schumann will be presented in recital at the Metropolitan AME Church, 1101 East Tenth Street in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, May 13, 2012 at 3:00pm. This recital, a part of the inaugural season of the Pro Arts Collective’s Metropolitan Classical Series, includes “Mother and Child” from William Grant Still’s Suite for Violin and Piano, Ernest Bloch’s Baal Shem – Three Pictures of Chassidic Life, and Antonin Dvorak’s Sonatina, Op. 100.
This
appearance is Thompson’s second performance for the Pro Arts
Collective, the first taking place during the 2011 Black Arts Movement
(BAM) Festival. Recipient of a Participation Prize during the 2011 Padova International Music Competition in Italy, Samuel Thompson is
a Baltimore-based violinist increasingly in demand for both recital and
chamber music engagements while receiving both critical and audience
acclaim for his insightful performances, thoughtful programming and
written musical commentary. His recent appearances in the
Baltimore/Washington DC region include performances as a guest with the
critically acclaimed Great Noise Ensemble and performances at the
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Musicians of Mercy Concert
Series, Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore) and The Music Center at
Strathmore. Elsewhere, he has performed in recital at the New Haven
International Festival of Arts and Ideas, the Millennium Music Spotlight
Series, the Columbia Festival of the Arts in South Carolina, Chicago’s
Fazioli Salon Series under the auspices of WFMT-FM-Chicago, The Kent
State-Ashtabula Classical Concert Series, the USC Cares: Renewal Through
Music series at the University of South Carolina School of Music,
Noontime at the Tabernacle Series in Logan, Utah and the Tafelmusik
Baroque Summer Institute in Toronto. Also
an avid and respected writer, Samuel was invited by Barbara Day Turner
of the San Jose Chamber Orchestra to write a column for the orchestra’s
newsletter. That column, titled “Other Notes”, made its debut in January 2012.
Pianist Michelle Schumann has served as the Artistic Director of the Austin Chamber Music Center since 2006 and concurrently serves as both Artist-in-Residence
and Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Mary
Hardin-Baylor where she is the founder and Artistic Director of the
Hillman Visiting Artists Series. Winner
of the 2006 Janice K. Hodges Competition for Contemporary Music, Dr.
Schumann’s recent international performances have taken her to the Cité
de la Musique-Paris, Conservatoire de Gabriel Faure, and Conservatoire
de Maurice Ravel in France; Birmingham Conservatory and St. Mary’s
Cathedral-Haxby in England; the Roxy Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland; and
the Salzburger Dom Cathedral and Konzervatorium Wien in Austria. She
has also performed with some of the finest musicians gracing the
world’s stages, including violinists Soovin Kim, Charles Wetherbee, and
Brian Lewis; cellists Clancy Newman and Sara Sant’Ambrogio; and string
quartets including the Jupiter, Cavani, Carpe Diem and Chiara String
Quartet. Michelle’s other collaborations include the Meridian Arts
Ensemble, American Repertory Ensemble, American Ballet Theater, New York
City Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, the Austin Symphony Orchestra, and Long
Beach Opera.
Co-founded in 1993 by Boyd Vance, ProArts (Pro Arts Collective) is
a multi-disciplinary arts organization that focuses on producing,
presenting, and developing artistic works that represent the diverse
cultures of the African Diaspora. Through its eighteen- year history,
ProArts has programmed through a prism of community cultural development
that includes the Black Arts Movement performing arts festival and a
number of community development projects. ProArts has
recently become a partner organization of the National Performance
Network (NPN), a national organization supporting artists in the
creation and touring of contemporary performing and visual arts.
Tickets for this concert can be purchased either by calling the Long Center at 512/474-LONG (5664) or online at www.proartsaustin.org. For more information on Pro Arts, please visit their website at www.proartsaustin.org. For more information on Samuel Thompson, please visit his website at samuelathompson.instantencore.com.
[William
Grant Still (1895-1978) is profiled at AfriClassical.com, which
features a comprehensive Works List by Prof. Dominique-René de
Lerma, http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com]
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