John Thompson short bio

John Thompson, with the largest recorded repertoire for the guqin silk-string zither, is certainly one of the most listened to players today: since May 2007 his website has averaged thousands of hits a day, many of them from people listening through China's music download websites to his recordings, unaware that it is not a Chinese master playing their most ancient surviving music. In all, he has reconstructed and recorded over 300 melodies from 15th through 17th century guqin tablature, and his website complements each melody with extensive musicological, historical and philosophical commentary. As a result, he is the best-known musician giving historically informed performances of early guqin music.

After a college degree in Western musicology (early music) and graduate studies in ethnomusicology, Thompson began in 1974 to study the modern guqin tradition from Sun Yü-Ch'in in Taiwan. Moving to Hong Kong in 1976 to consult with Tong Kin-Woon, he turned his focus to early repertoire, gradually gaining a reputation for the fidelity, fluency and feeling of his performances. In 1992 the National Union of Chinese Musicians invited him to Beijing as the focus of a seminar on reconstructing music from the earliest surviving guqin handbook, Shen Qi Mi Pu (1425 CE).

While based in Hong Kong as artistic consultant to the Festival of Asian Arts Thompson performed throughout East Asia, and published seven CDs of his musical reconstructions as well as four books of music transcriptions. Since 2001, when he moved to New York (and including 2009-2013, when he was based in Mumbai and Singapore), he has continued to perform, teach, research and lecture on the guqin, creating new music as well. In 2019 veteran Hong Kong film director Lau Shing-hon completed a two-hour documentary about this work.

Further information: http://www.silkqin.com

"Beautiful, supple and with great depth, John Thompson's Song and Ming Dynasty silk string guqin music is sound from heaven."
(Lau Shing Hon, film director and professor, Hong Kong)²
"Ancient, exquisite and sublime, his qin playing recreates a great realm of traditional Chinese culture."
(Wang Bu, Director, Music Conservatory of Hangzhou Normal University, 2008)
"Absorbing, and deeply involved in both Chinese and Western culture."
(Wu Wenguang, Chinese Conservatory of Music, Beijing, 2003)
"He soars beyond the ordinary world to bring the beauty of the qin to music lovers worldwide."
(Xu Kuanghua, Founder of the West Lake Qin Society, Hangzhou, 2002)

Education:

St. John's Episcopal Parish Day School, Tampa, Florida, 1960
The Asheville School, Asheville, N.C., 1963
Haverford College, B.A., 1967 (Musicology)
Florida State University, M.A., 1971 (Asian Studies)
University of Michigan, graduate studies in ethnomusicology and Chinese (1971 - 1974)
Mandarin Training Center, Taiwan Normal University, classical Chinese (1974 - 1976)
Private qin lessons with Sun Yü-ch'in, 1974 - 1976

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Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Shorter biographies
The biography above has about 290 words. Here are three shorter versions:

150 words

John Thompson, a well-known performer of early music for the Chinese guqin silk string zither, began his studies in Taiwan in 1974, learning the traditional repertoire from National Treasure Sun Yü-ch'in. Since 1976, he has focused on reconstructing old melodies directly from tablature, by now having transcribed and recorded over 300 melodies from scores published in the 15th through 17th centuries; almost all are on his website, www.silkqin.com. The most comprehensive source of information about guqin music and its cultural and historical context, this site receives thousands of hits daily. From 1980 to 2000, while artistic consultant to the Hong Kong Festival of Asian Arts, and since moving to the New York area in 2001, he has continued to promote guqin, publishing seven CDs of his musical reconstructions and four books of transcriptions, also performing and lecturing worldwide. In 2019 a two-hour documentary about his guqin work was released.

100 words:

John Thompson, a well-known performer of early music for the Chinese guqin zither, has since 1976 reconstructed over 280 melodies from scores published in the 15th through 17th centuries; almost all recordings and transcriptions are on his website, www.silkqin.com. Receiving thousands of hits daily, it is the most comprehensive source of information about guqin. From 1980 to 1998, while artistic consultant to the Festival of Asian Arts, he published seven CDs of his musical reconstructions. Since moving to the New York area in 2001 he has continued do research and perform worldwide. In 2019 a two-hour documentary about his guqin work was released.

60 words:

John Thompson, the well-known performer of early music for the Chinese guqin zither, has since 1976 reconstructed over 280 melodies from scores published in the 15th through 17th centuries and given numerous solo performances worldwide. His website, www.silkqin.com, the most comprehensive source of information on this subject, receives thousands of hits daily. In 2019 a two-hour documentary about his guqin work was released.

30 words:

John Thompson is a scholar and musician who since 1974 has researched, reconstructed and recorded early music for the Chinese seven-string zither, making the results available through his website, www.silkqin.com.
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2. Full quote
The quote above is excerpted from the following comment by Lau Shing Hon:

"Beautiful, supple and with great depth, John Thompson's Song and Ming Dynasty silk string guqin music is sound from heaven. Today when we are overwhelmed by the modern sound of the metal string 'guqin', we should be very grateful to John who relentlessly brings us back to a deeply moving realm of the ancient Chinese literati. Definitely not to be missed!."
「美妙、圓潤、渾厚、唐世璋的宋明天籟絲絃琴音韻味盎然。在今天鋼弦古琴充斥亂真之下，難得他為我們重現一个感動人心的古代中國文人境界、不容錯過！」劉成漢 ( 香港電影導演及教授 )
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