Oakland Symphony to Present LOST ROMANTIC SYMPHONIES with Kelly Hall-Tompkins

The Oakland Symphony, Michael Morgan Music Director and conductor, will be joined by guest violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins - currently on Broadway was as the Fiddler in Fiddler on the Roof -- and members of its acclaimed Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra for Lost Romantic Symphonies Friday, November 18, at 8 pm at the Paramount Theatre.

The concert will feature Hall-Tompkins performing the U.S. premiere of Siegfried Matthus' new violin concerto, Dream of a Summer Night, along with John Williams' Theme from Schindler's List and Fiddler on the Roof.

The program also includes Joachim Raff's rarely performed Symphony No. 3, and the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra, back from its Cuban Tour, will join the Symphony for Gershwin's Cuban Overture. The concert will be preceded by a talk by John Kendall-Bailey at 7 pm that is free to ticket holders and the entire evening is sponsored by The Grubb Company. Tickets are priced $25-$80 and may be purchased at www.oaklandsymphony.org or by calling 510-444-0802.

Currently the "Fiddler," violin soloist, for the Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof and winner of a Sphinx Foundation award, Kelly Hall-Tompkins has been featured as soloist in over 100 Broadway performances to date, plus a new cast album alongside a bonus track by Itzhak Perlman as she forges 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. 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 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, and was featured 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.

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.

A dedicated humanitarian, Ms. Hall-Tompkins founded and directs Music Kitchen-Food for the Soul, which has, to date, brought over 80 chamber music performances to New York City and Los Angeles homeless shelters, with over 100 artists including Emanuel Ax, Glenn Dicterow, Albrecht Mayer, Jeff Ziegler and Rene Marie.

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