Cecil I. Walker Jazz Series: Bob Thompson

Jazz pianist Bob Thompson has enjoyed a long and active career as a performer, composer, arranger, and teacher. For decades he has played in West Virginia, and at festivals and venues around the country, including the Blue Note in New York, Blues Alley in Washington D.C. and the Newport Jazz Festival in Saratoga, NY. He has also taken his music to Europe, Africa, and South America. In December 2022 he was featured at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts playing solo piano as part of “A Jazz Piano Christmas”, which was broadcast on NPR. Bob Thompson was also a guest on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, on National Public Radio.

Since 1991 Bob Thompson has been pianist, and regularly featured artist on West Virginia Public Broadcasting's NPR syndicated radio show, Mountain Stage. For the past thirty years he has also been co-producer and host of Joy to the World, a Holiday jazz show featuring Bob’s band, and each year, a special guest vocalist. The show is broadcast nationally on public radio stations.

In October 2015, Bob Thompson was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.

The Cecil I. Walker Jazz Series is supported by the Cecil I. Walker Charitable Trust.

The Clay Center’s performing and visual arts offerings are presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture, and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.