Thompson was a jazz piano winner for the National YoungArts Foundation and received awards at both the Essentially Ellington and Charles Mingus competitions.[3] In 2016, Thompson won the Horace Parlan Talent Award at Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen. In 2018, he was awarded the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award and, in the same year, earned second place in the Thelonious Monk Competition.[1] In 2023, he won the American Piano Awards and the Cole Porter Fellowship in Jazz of the American Piano Awards.[4][6]
Discography
As a Leader
Isaiah J. Thompson Trio Live from @exuberance (EP, 2018)
Isaiah J. Thompson Plays the Music of Buddy Montgomery (WJ3 Records, 2020)
Composed in Color (Red Records, 2021)
The Power of the Spirit (Blue Engine Records, 2023)
A Guaraldi Holiday (The IT Department, LLC, Outside in Music, Jazz Bird Records, 2023)
The Book of Isaiah: Modern Jazz Ministry (Mack Avenue Records, 2025)
↑"West Orange Jazz Musician to Release New CD This Week", TAPinto West Orange, September 15, 2020. Accessed May 20, 2023. "Isaiah J. Thompson, long time resident of West Orange, will be releasing his debut CD celebrating the music of Jazz legend Buddy Montgomery later this week.... Thompson attended Montclair-Kimberley Academy High School, but each summer he served as a teaching assistant for the Summer Enrichment program at West Orange High, working with K-2 students on music."
