Larry Thompson is the director of the Tuesday morning adult concert band, having previously been assistant director from 2014 to 2022. He also directs the Edgewood Summer Band, a position he has held the past 12 years. Prior to his time with the MSU Community Music School, Larry taught in the public school system as band director and K-6 general music teacher at Stockbridge, Onekama and Morrice Schools in Michigan. A graduate of Michigan State University, he holds a bachelor’s degree in instrumental music education. His primary instrument is clarinet, and he played alto saxophone in the MSU Spartan Marching Band for five years, serving as section leader in his last year. Larry also has a strong background in piano, having been awarded numerous superior ratings and winning several regional and state competitions while in junior and senior high school. In addition to works by Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Bartok, among others, in his senior year he performed Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” multiple times.
Since retiring from public school teaching, Larry hosted two weekly jazz radio shows for a year on WNMC at Northern Michigan College in Traverse City, visited schools around the state on behalf of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp to audition students for tuition scholarships, and for the last 12 years, records dozens of band & orchestra, choir and jazz festivals as well as marching competitions each year for UDP West Recording.
Larry enjoys playing and listening to jazz, trying to improve his golf game and following the Detroit Tigers and MSU Spartans. He takes rollercoaster vacations each year with his son, Jeremy, who works in the “theming industry” in Los Angeles. His current count of different coasters ridden is 430, while his son’s is over 1,000. Larry’s daughter, Mara, is a national spokesperson for the American Red Cross in Chicago. He resides in Williamston.
