Joshua Thompson
Joshua Thompson, ICO Creative Partner-in-Residence
Brief info
Joshua Thompson is a pianist, social musicologist, teaching artist, lecturer, and producer. He is recognized on a national scale for his expertise on classical composers of African descent and the inherent cultural connectivity in Black Arts movements. A recipient of multiple awards, citations, and national residencies including the 2020 Beckman Emerging Artist Fellow of the Arts Council of Indianapolis, he successfully completed his residency at the Africana Studies Center for Music and Society at the Berklee School of Music in Boston with Dr. Bill Banfield followed by a performing and teaching residency at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. Thompson was recently appointed Creative Partner in Residence with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra through 2024. As creator of the 2020 Best Music Podcast from the Black Podcasting Awards, his award-winning podcast series, Melanated Moments in Classical Music has been featured in the Miami Times and the British publication, Alternative Classical. Entering its fifth season with a growing audience in over 110 countries and nearly 2000 cities worldwide, Thompson has worked with Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Davis, renowned clarinetist Anthony McGill and legendary operatic soprano, Angela Brown.
Known onstage as “Sock Joplin”, Joshua Thompson is a pianist, music sociologist, lecturer and producer recognized on a national scale for his expertise on classical composers of African descent. A recipient of numerous awards, citations and national residencies including the 2020 Beckmann Emerging Artist Fellowship, Thompson has completed residencies at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, University of Puget Sound, University of Louisville, Escape 2 Create in Seaside, FL and currently serves as the Creative Partner in Residence with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. In 2019, Thompson was a featured presenter for the popular TED Talk series and in 2020, created the award-winning podcast, Melanated Moments in Classical Music. Now in its 7th season, the podcast has a global listening audience in over 2,000 cities and is used as curriculum in colleges and universities around the world. Joshua has worked and performed with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Pulitzer Prize winning composer, Anthony Davis, New York Philharmonic clarinetist Anthony McGill, and legendary operatic soprano, Angela Brown. Joshua, recently received a Challenge America Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for his upcoming concert with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Black Keys.
