The Walter Thompson Orchestra (WTO), founded in 1984 as a vehicle for Thompson's compositions and adaptations, has expanded beyond the core ensemble of world-class musicians to include actors, dancers, and visual artists.

The WTO is on the vanguard of live performance exploring the interdisciplinary potential of composition through improvisatory methods called Soundpainting. Soundpainting was initially developed as a method of conducting and shaping improvisation during a performance. Over the past 20 years, Soundpainting has evolved into a complete language with which music, dance, theater, film, or an educational presentation can be realized spontaneously through structured improvisation. At a time when most art forms are still bound by strict definitions, the WTO brings a fresh approach to the conventions of music, drama, dance, or visual arts. Of Thompson, Chris Kelsey of Jazz NOW wrote, "His work is spontaneous composition in its most highly realized form."

Thompson's Soundpainting demands that artists step away from what is familiar and predictable and commit to each expressive act without knowing where it will lead. The Conductor/Sound Painter asks each performer to improvise as she or he is normally accustomed but goes further, stretching the genre boundaries of their "instrument," for example, musicians may be called upon to laugh, actors to sing, and dancers to sample language. Because the conductor can direct all of the performers through this unique vocabulary, the concept of "orchestra" swells to the point where a comparison to the experience of flipping through a television with 100 channels is not far fetched. In fact, flipping through a hundred channels at random and then creating meaningful patterns from the musical, textural, and visual associations might be one way to approximate experiencing the WTO or describing the process of composition through which the Sound Painter goes. Thompson shapes these fragments into a larger architecture so that familiar aspects of theater, such as "character," or elements of music, such as a "waltz," might be combined with choreography, film clips, and lighting, creating a constantly evolving collage. The challenge for the artist is to create new material, under Thompson's direction, instead of relying on a script, score, or model. The integrated practice of structured improvisation with interdisciplinary performance is what makes The Walter Thompson Orchestra stand apart from other contemporary music, dance, and theater groups.

The Walter Thompson Orchestra has performed in club and concert venues in the US and Europe, including HERE Arts Center, Lincoln Center, the Knitting Factory, Eastman School of Music, Sweet Basil, La Ma Ma, The Kitchen, Brooklyn Museum, BimHuis (Amsterdam), Jacobs Pillow, and on National Public Radio's Fresh Air.

"I was blown away by a show more entertaining, intriguing, and exciting than anything I'd seen in a long time."

J. C. Shakespeare, The Austin Chronicle
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"His work is spontaneous composition in its most highly realized form"

Chris Kelsey, JazzNOW
Full Review