Dr. Joseph Tompkins
Head of Percussion
Assistant Professor
Percussionist Joseph Tompkins has performed with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Opera and Ballet Orchestras, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. On Broadway he has played in productions of The King and I, Swan Lake, Oklahoma!, The Lion King, The Producers, Spamalot, The Light in the Piazza, Tarzan, Guys and Dolls, and In the Heights. Tompkins has performed on film soundtracks for The Manchurian Candidate, The Last Holiday, Failure to Launch, and Casanova. For seven years he was a member of the percussion trio Timetable, a group committed to commissioning and performing new works for percussion. He is the head of the percussion program at Rutgers University and a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and the Manhattan School.