Kelly Hall-Tompkins

Kelly Hall-Tompkins is an American violinist known both as a soloist and as the "Fiddler" of the 2015 Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof, where she played the onstage violin solos. She founded Music Kitchen, a program that brings chamber concerts to homeless shelters, and she records and programs music by Black composers alongside standard repertoire. She appears in this directory with the Nashville Symphony and the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra.

Hall-Tompkins plays with a warm, singing tone and a strong sense of rhythm, which serves her well in the swing-inflected and folk-colored music she often champions. Listeners who know her from Fiddler on the Roof will recognize the way she lets a melody bend and breathe like a voice. Her programs frequently mix familiar concertos with works by Black composers, including short character pieces that she introduces from the stage. Note that both appearances listed here pair her orchestra with a Wynton Marsalis concerto written for trumpet, so the concerto solo line on those nights belongs to a trumpeter. In Roanoke the evening opens with Arthur Benjamin's Jamaican Rumba, a two minute dance built on a lilting, syncopated tune.