Trina Thompson

Trina Thompson, chair of the music department at Andrews University, is a pianist and theorist. An assistant professor of music at Andrews University, she has taught at AU since 2009. She previously taught music theory (2000-2002) at Walla Walla College, now University, and served as interim chair of the music department (2001-2002).

A 1998 WWC B.A. graduate with majors in music, humanities, and Spanish, she completed an M.Mus. in Piano Performance and Pedagogy at Northern Illinois University in 2000 under Donald Walker. She is presently a Ph.D. candidate in music theory at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

During her study at IU, she was awarded the Indiana University’s Chancellor’s Fellowship and the IU Music Theory Department’s Dissertation-Year Fellowship. While at IU, Thompson taught written and aural music theory on both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

A preparatory and undergraduate student of Debra Richter (now Bakland) for twelve years, Thompson won many awards and honors for her playing, including numerous medals in the Spokane Allied Arts Festival. Thompson was a popular student teacher in the piano preparatory program at WWC for seven years and assisted Richter in running the division.

A National Merit Finalist, she placed first in the Scholarship Audition music program for entering freshmen at WWC in 1993. She subsequently was awarded departmental honors scholarships in all of her three majors and was recipient of the 1996 Thomas Hampson Humanities Scholarship Award, the most prestigious award in the humanities at WWC. In her senior year, the music students and faculty at WWC selected her as one of two Outstanding Music Majors of the Year.

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Sources: Biography, Andrews University music department (2013); Opus, Walla Walla College music department newsletter, 1998, 5 and 25, and 2000, 22; IAMA Notes, Summer/Autumn 2000, 21, 22; Andrews University Focus, Summer 2009, 13; personal knowledge.