Fiddler on the Roof's violin soloist, Kelly Hall-Tompkins, will perform a pre-show concert at a special event screening of the 1971 film of Fiddler on the Roof on Monday, June 27th at the United Palace of Cultural Arts (4140 Broadway at W. 175th St.. The concert begins at 7:00 pm. Tickets to the event are available for purchase through: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/958997
Featured in the New York Times as the "versatile violinist who brings the music to life", on The NBC TODAY Show with
Harry Smith for her "gorgeous violin solos," concert violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins is the actual violinist who is heard in the current Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof. Though never seen on stage, Hall-Tompkins shares this role together with dancer
Jesse Kovarsky who plays the onstage Fiddler.
Prior to the screening of the historic 1971 film, Hall-Tompkins will perform all new Fiddler inspired solo music, both original and arranged by the Broadway hit's own arranger Oran Eldor, with an ensemble of musicians from the actual show. Following the performance, she will lead a Q&A about her role in the show, insights into the production and how a show gets put together from first rehearsal to opening night.
The United Palace opened in 1930 as the Loew's ?175th Street Theatre, the last of the five Wonder Theatres. In 1969 the theatre was purchased, and renamed, by Rev. Ike whose success as a "prosperity preacher" allowed the congregation to maintain the spectacular architecture. With 3,400 seats the United Palace is Manhattan's fourth largest theatre, and has hosted concerts by
Bob Dylan,
Neil Young, Adele, the Allman Brothers, and countless top Latin acts. In 2012, Rev. Ike's son Xavier Eikerenkoetter fulfilled his dream of creating an arts and cultural center by incorporating UPCA as an independent nonprofit. One of UPCA's priorities has been returning movies to the Palace. Crowdsourcing campaigns raised close to $75K to replace the screen and buy digital projectors. The "Classic NYC Movies at the Palace" series, launched in 2014, has been hosted by Broadway star
Lin-Manuel Miranda and New York Post Chief Film Critic Lou Lumenick and featured the likes of
Rita Moreno introducing "West Side Story" and John Landis introducing "King Kong." To honor the building's era as a vaudeville house, most movies include pre-show entertainment such as mini-concerts by Broadway singer, period dance performances, and even a magic show before "Frozen." The New York Times called the United Palace a "cathedral for film" and in 2013 amNY named the United Palace, "The Best Way to See Movies the Way They Used To Be." In 2016 UPCA began a $350,000 fundraising campaign to purchase a DCP projector and 7.1 cinema sound as part of the next act in the ongoing effort to "Return Movies to the Palace."
Violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins is forging a dynamic career as a soloist and chamber musician. Winner of a Naumburg International Violin Competition Honorarium Prize as well as a Concert Artists Guild Career Grant, Ms. Hall-Tompkins has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Dallas Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Tulsa Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of New York, and Philharmonic of Uruguay, in addition to numerous concerts and recitals in cities including New York, Washington, Cleveland, Toronto, Chicago, Baltimore, and Greenville, South Carolina, and at festivals in France, Germany and Italy.
Featured as soloist in over 100 Broadway performances to date, plus a new cast album alongside a bonus track by
Itzhak Perlman, Ms. Hall-Tompkins has been the subject on NBC's Today Show with
Harry Smith, NBC 4 New York with Janice Huff, WWFM radio and Strings Magazine among numerous other outlets for her role in Fiddler. A significant collaborating partner with violinist/composer Mark O'Connor, Ms. Hall-Tompkins has performed his Double Violin Concerto with O'Connor in concerts across the United States. As a passionate chamber musician, Ms. Hall-Tompkins is first violinist of the O'Connor String Quartet, which has performed concerts nationally, including Tanglewood, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and Lincoln Center's Great Performer's Circle, and a member of the Florida-based Ritz Chamber Players, including concerts in residence at Jacksonville's Times Union Center for the Performing Arts, the
Ravinia Festival's "Rising Stars Series," New York at Lincoln Center's Allen Room, and in Baltimore in collaboration with BSO concertmaster and string principals, along with many other venues. She has performed at the Garth Newel Music Center, Chamber Music South Dakota, New York City's Bargemusic, live on WNYC's "Soundcheck", at Miami's Deering Estate Series and for the Raleigh Chamber Music Guild.
Additional performance highlights include a 2007 Benefit for the Victims of Darfur at
Carnegie Hall. Ms. Hall-Tompkins was invited by actress
Mia Farrow and conductor George Matthew to perform as soloist before an orchestra comprised of musicians from every major orchestra in the world. In 2002 Hall-Tompkins commissioned a new work for violin and percussion from the German composer Siegfried Matthus, which was premiered at Michigan's Pine Mountain Music Festival and will give in 2016 with the Oakland East Bay Symphony the US Premiere of Professor Matthus's new Violin Concerto. Ms. Hall-Tompkins' performances have been broadcast in New York by WQXR, by Chicago's WFMT and on the BBC.
Ms. Hall-Tompkins' newest recording project is Imagination, a double video release of the Ysaÿe sonata No. 6 and her own jazz arrangement of "Pure Imagination" from the original film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The videos, released online and on Collector's Edition DVD in early 2014, have garnered 1,000,000 You Tube views, were featured in Strings Magazine, hailed as "ground-breaking...sumptuous... a potent package," and by Chamber Music America in a public presentation on creating music videos. She released her debut CD recording in 2002, 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, featuring music by Kreisler, Saint-Saëns, William Grant, and David Baker. The album was praised by Fanfare for its "opulent intensity" and by The Strad, which described Hall-Tompkins' "winning way," noting her "mercurial charms [and] genial touch...impressive."
Ms. Hall-Tompkins' distinguished orchestral career has included extensive touring in the United States and internationally with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, including performances in
Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Japan, Singapore, Scotland and a recording with countertenor Andreas Scholl. She also performed over 150 performances with the
New York Philharmonic, under conductors including
Kurt Masur,
Leonard Slatkin, Andre Previn, Charles Dutoit and Valery Gergiev. Now regularly tapped as Concertmaster, Ms. Hall-Tompkins lead the 2016 Lincoln Center Benefit for the 10 Year Anniversary of Light in the Piazza, an upcoming 2016 Live From Lincoln Center Broadcast with
Lang Lang, numerous
Carnegie Hall Concerts with the New York Pops and as founding member 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. From 1999-2012 she was a member of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
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