Jesse Thompson is a second-year violin fellow at the New World Symphony. Before moving to Miami Beach, Jesse was living in Pittsburgh, PA. He has performed with the Pittsburgh Opera, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Wheeling Symphony and Grand Rapids Symphony. Thompson has spent his summers attending music camps and festivals including New England Music Camp, Philadelphia International Music Festival, Sunflower Music Festival and the Buzzards Bay Musicfest. 

In the summer of 2022 while attending the Sunflower Music Festival in Topeka, Kansas, he had the honor of playing at the Brown vs Board of Education school and historic landmark where he performed Blue/s Forms for solo violin by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson. Thompson is biracial and very passionate about culturally diversifying and influencing the classical music world as best he can. He aspires to one day hold a private teaching studio with the majority of his students being minorities or coming from diverse backgrounds. 

Jesse has participated in masterclasses with concertmasters David Kim and Noah Bendix-Balgley. During his time at New World Symphony, he had the opportunity to sit concertmaster under Stéphane Denève as well as for renowned soloist Leonidas Kavakos performing Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4. Jesse has also performed under the batons of Michael Tilson-Thomas, Cristian Măcelaru, Marcelo Lehninger, JoAnn Falletta and Xian Zhang. 

Thompson has taken lessons with Alex Kerr and Kathy Winkler as well as Philadelphia Orchestra members Kim Fisher, Marc Rovetti and David Kim. His primary teachers were Charles and Rachel Stegeman at Duquesne University for eight and a half years. He obtained his Bachelors, Artist Diploma and Masters in violin performance from Duquesne University. Prior to attending Duquesne, he studied with Kenneth Sarch, former concertmaster of Williamsport Symphony in his hometown of Williamsport, PA. In his free time, Jesse enjoys learning Spanish, cooking, trying new restaurants, pickleball and relaxing on the beach.