Marcus Thompson, Robert R. Taylor Professor of Music and Margaret MacVicar Fellow, has just been appointed Institute Professor. This title is the highest honor bestowed by the Faculty and Administration of MIT on an esteemed member of the faculty for demonstrating exceptional distinction via a combination of leadership, accomplishment, and service in the scholarly, educational, and general intellectual life of the Institute or wider academic community. This special title is usually held by around a dozen or so individuals at one time. The MIT Music and Theater Arts program now proudly boasts two Institute Professors on its faculty: composer John Harbison and violist Marcus Thompson.
About Marcus Thompson
A native of the Bronx, New York, Marcus Thompson began playing the violin at age 6. After early studies he attended the Juilliard Pre-College Division as a student of Louise Behrend. At age 17, he switched his violin for the viola and, after nearly a decade of study with violist Walter Trampler, received The Juilliard School's first doctoral degree in viola performance. He studied chamber music with members of the Juillliard, Amadeus, and Netherlands String Quartets, Joseph Gingold, and Felix Galimir.
A solo and chamber musician, Marcus Thompson garnered public attention after an acclaimed debut recital in the Young Concert Artists Series at Carnegie Recital Hall and performances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York and in Boston. Since then he has appeared regularly in chamber music festivals and concert series in Sitka, Seattle, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Portland, Dubrovnik, Okinawa, and New York and in collaborations with the Emerson, Jupiter, Borromeo, Muir, Calder, and Shanghai string quartets.
As soloist he has apppeared with major orchestras including: the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras, the Chicago and National Symphony orchestras, as well as those of Atlanta, Rochester, and St. Louis. In L.A. he performed the west coast premiere of Harbison's Viola Concerto with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra under the direction of the composer.
Prof. Thompson is the founding director of MIT's Emerson Program for Private Study and of the MIT Chamber Music Society, two important performance programs in Music and Theater Arts. He is a member of the viola faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music and the Artistic Director of the Boston Chamber Music Society.
