Newfields Speaker Series

Indianapolis-based artist and musician Joshua Thompson pairs classical masterwork performances from composers of African descent with work by local visual artists in this engaging cross-cultural discussion on identity, status, and the arts.   

About Joshua Thompson: Joshua Thompson is a pianist, social musicologist, teaching artist, and producer. Known onstage as Sock Joplin, he is increasingly recognized on a national scale for his expertise on classical composers of African descent and the inherent cultural connectivity in the broader aesthetic of Black Arts movements. As the 2020 Beckman Emerging Artist Fellow of the Arts Council of Indianapolis, he successfully completed his residence at the Africana Studies Center for Music and Society at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, followed by a performing/teaching residency at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA and currently serves as the first Musicologist in Residence for Classical Music Indy.