Instructors

DR. CHRISTOPHER THOMPSON

Dr. Christopher Thompson offers violin instruction for students from age three through adult level. He has forty two years of experience as a private studio instructor, and offers traditional instruction as well as the Suzuki Method for young students. Thompson retired from his position as Professor of Violin at the University of Louisiana at Monroe in 2010, after a twenty-eight year university teaching career, to open his studio in Tupelo. Dr. Thompson’s former students are now successful professional violinists, teachers and professors throughout the United States. Thompson holds membership in the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and the American String Teachers Association. Thompson Violin Studio is an affiliate studio of the Tupelo Suzuki Association. Dr. Thompson has studied Suzuki Pedagogy with Janet Armour, Vera McCoy-Sulentic, Yuko Honda and Judy Bossuat-Gallic.

Christopher Thompson, violinist, has performed to acclaim as a soloist and recitalist in the United States, Europe and the Far East. In 1983, Thompson was a winner in the NFMC Young Artist Auditions. In 1994, Thompson was one of eleven music professors in the United States to be awarded a Senior Fulbright Lectureship. As a Senior Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Thompson was appointed as Artist-in-Residence with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan. In 1992, Thompson was invited to present violin master classes at the University of Siena in Italy, where he also performed recitals in venues throughout Tuscany and southern Switzerland. Thompson earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in violin performance from LSU in the studio of Dinos Constantinides. He has also studied violin with Margaret Pardee of the Juilliard School of Music in New York City and with Professor Charles Castleman of the Eastman School in Rochester, New York. Thompson is recorded on the Air and Centaur recording labels. His latest disc, released by Centaur in 2012, features Thompson in collaboration with pianist Michael Gurt as Duo Chanot, and is available from iTunes and Barnes & Noble. Upon the recommendation of Margaret Pardee of the Juilliard faculty, Thompson’s biography was chosen for inclusion in the 1995 Edition of the International Who’s Who in Music, published in Cambridge, England.

DR. LAURA THOMPSON

Laura Thompson earned the Doctor of Arts degree in Vocal Pedagogy from the University of Mississippi, the Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Louisiana State University and the degree of Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Mississippi State University. She holds Orff Level I Certification from the Eastman School of Music. Laura Thompson studied voice with Wiley Tatum, Sandra Kungle, and with Professor Cynthia Linton at the University of Mississippi. She has performed in Master Classes presented by Oren Brown of the Juilliard School of Music. As a mezzo-soprano, Laura Thompson has performed as soloist with the Paducah Symphony, the Alabama Festival Chorus and Orchestra, the Memphis Oratorio Society, and the River City Opera in Baton Rouge.

Dr. Thompson held the position of Associate Professor of Voice at Louisiana Tech University, where she taught studio voice and chaired the vocal music education division in the School of the Performing Arts. During her thirty-year university teaching career, she held previous appointments at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and at Murray State University. Laura Thompson’s choirs from Louisiana Tech University have performed by invitation in Austria and at the Lucerne International Choral Festival in Switzerland. As a scholar in Interdisciplinary Baroque Studies, she has presented nationally and internationally for conferences including the National Social Sciences Association, the National Conference on Gifted Children, and the National Curriculum Network Conference at the College of William and Mary. Under the auspices of a Board of Regents Grant (University of Louisiana System), Dr. Thompson’s research in Interdisciplinary Baroque Studies has been published in lecture format on Merlot.org. She has served as president of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (North Louisiana Chapter). Dr. Thompson has had numerous winners in district, state (Louisiana), and regional NATS Competitions. Her students have sung solo roles in opera festivals in Italy and Portugal and studied on scholarship in Salzburg, Austria. Laura Thompson’s former students are now successful professional singers and teachers throughout the United States.

For twenty-one years Laura Thompson served as Chancel Choir Director at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Monroe, Louisiana. She also served as Choral Director at Tupelo Christian Preparatory School in Tupelo, Mississippi from 2013-2019. Dr. Thompson currently offers private voice and piano lessons at Thompson Music Studio in Pontotoc, Mississippi.