George Tompkins (composer)

George Ira Tompkins (1888-1972), was a ragtime composer, vocal director and music teacher from Waterbury, Connecticut.

In 1907, he appeared with a string quartet based in Connecticut in a concert at Buckingham Hall, alongside operatic baritone, David Bispham.

Walter's "Preislied" was a difficult selection, but it seemed anything but hard to the young artist, who is fast winning laurels in the musical world".

Clark of The Phonograph Co. of Chicago described Tompkins as "a violinist of marked ability" following a performance of Henryk Wieniawski's Concerto in D Minor at Woolsey Hall.

Attending the institute for two years, graduating in 1910, Tompkins would become a member of the New York Symphony Orchestra in 1908, participating in many concerts along the Jersey Shore during this time.

[9] His name first appears in connection with violin students who later joined the Liberty Orchestra of Simsbury, which played especially for the "Welfare dances" of the town after World War I.

Many musicians that comprised this orchestra were from the small village of Tariffville, including many Polish-Americans, led by violinist Edwin Varjenski.

His first pieces of music were published in 1912, including "The Mexican Rag", which was originally sung by the Westminster School Dramatic Club.

[20] Tompkins's reputation as a violinist had succeeded that of his composing, evidenced by a passage from 1915 in The Musician titled "The College Man in Music".

While a teacher at this institution, he was leader of the Watertown Choral Club chorus and was asked to conduct his own compositions with the Boston Festival Orchestra.