MICHAEL THOMPSON
Horn
Michael Thompson is internationally acknowledged as one of the
world's leading horn soloists. He first came to prominence when he
was chosen by Riccardo Muti to be Principal Horn with the
Philharmonia Orchestra at the age of twenty-one, a post he held for
ten years before leaving to concentrate on his solo and chamber music
career.
Michael Thompson works throughout the world at the highest level.
Last season he toured Japan twice, made return visits to the USA
during the summers of '96 and '97 and made another successful return
tour to Australia for the ABC. He has toured Europe with the Polish
Radio Orchestra and at the 1996 Prague Spring Festival was immediately re-invited to this year's festival.
As a prolific recording artist he has performed all the major
classical and romantic horn repertoire plus works by Messiaen,
Birtwistle, Maxwell Davies and Tippett as well as the obbligato horn
parts of Bach and Handel, using period instruments with labels such
as Decca, EMI, Chandos, Hyperion and Naxos/Marco Polo. The Michael
Thompson Wind Quintet has made a number of critically acclaimed
recordings and the quintet is currently working on major projects to
record the complete works of Reicha and Krommer. Similarly, the
Michael Thompson Horn Quartet also has the finest reputation with
superlative recent reviews for its recording with EMI of Tippet's
"Sonata for Four Horns". Future concerts by this group include
appearances at the Royal Albert Hall in London and Carnegie Hall, New
York with Sir Paul McCartney.
Michael Thompson is a noted champion of new music. In 1991 he gave
the world premiere of Anthony Power's Horn Concerto with the Royal
Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Libor Pesek and, more
recently, he returned a revised edition of Michael Berkeley's Horn
Concerto to the repertoire when he performed it with Jerzy Maksymiuk
and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. During the last year, he has
premiered concertos by Simon Bainbridge and Bruce Broughton which
were written especially for him and he repeated Bainbridge's Horn
Concerto in the 1997 BBC Promenade Concert at the Royal Albert Hall
in London.
Michael Thompson is in great demand as a teacher and has given
master classes in the USA, Japan and Australia. In the UK he is
Consultant at Trinity College of Music and Visiting Professor and
Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.
Michael Thompson plays on an instrument made by Paxman of
London.
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Osmun
Music, Inc. & Robert
J. Osmun
