Darren Thompson is an Ojibwe flute player and multi-media journalist from the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe Indian Reservation in northern Wisconsin. He has served communities and movements in cultural, creative, and resourceful ways to address American Indian cultural revitalization, history, and partnership.

His career as an American Indian musician began while an undergraduate at Marquette University and has since taken him to many prestigious organizations, including the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, the Heard Museum, the Crazy Horse Memorial, the Berklee College of Music. His music has been nominated twice in the Native American Music Awards for flute album of the year, in 2016 and 2022.

Thompson has performed as a guest solo artist with several prestigious chamber orchestras, including the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, where he appeared on the front page of the Wisconsin State Journal in March of 2022. He is slated to perform with the Chicago Youth Chamber Orchestra in the fall of 2025 with narration of a multi-media production narrated by Robert Redford.

The NMM Live! Series is made possible by the USD Student Government Association and the South Dakota Arts Council through the Department of Tourism, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support graciously provided by the USD Opportunity Center.