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.
ds/2016
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.