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 | | |  | | Mitch Hampton |
| | | Mitch Hampton has a bachelors in jazz piano and an M.M. in composition from the New England Conservatory where he was a student of Jazz Pianist Stanley Cowell and composer William Thomas McKinley. As a jazz pianist he has performed with a jazz sextet, his own trio, and popular singers. At NEC he had the opportunity to work with George Russell and perform Russell’s composition with an ensemble at Jordan Hall. Ensemble directors George Garzone, Dominique Eade, and legendary saxophonist Jimmy Giuffre also coached him.
As a jazz performer between 1985 and 1990 he was the arranger and pianist for The New Voice Jazz Sextet with which he traveled the greater Boston area, playing all major jazz clubs, including the Willow, Ryles, 1369 as well as weddings, Bar Mitzvahs and private functions. His Mitch Hampton Trio has performed at the Willow, Howard Johnsons and other hotels. He was the pianist for clarinetist Chester Brezniak, flutist Mike Feingold and various pop and cabaret singers. He has also played cocktail piano in the lounge of the Sheraton Boston Hotel.
As a composer he has had works premiered by the Ciompi String Quartet in North Carolina at Duke University, and premieres at Carnegie Recital Hall. These included a flute and piano suite for Joseph Trent as part of a flute festival led by Robert Stallman, two songs for the Maryland Bach Aria group and a jazz saxophone quartet, Jazz Taxonomies written for the Berlin Saxophone Quartet. A member of the Masters Musician Collective, he has also contributed to the MMC recording project an orchestral waltz, Three Minute Waltz that was recorded by the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra on the compact disc Robert Black Conducts (MMC2008). The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble under the direction of David Stock premiered his Night Creatures. His most recent recording which has been released in 1997 was the Concerto For Improvised Jazz Piano and Orchestra featuring Hampton as solo pianist and recorded by the Prague Radio Orchestra under the direction of Vladamir Valek (MMC2032). His American Symphony, which was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, will be released as a recording in 2001.
His debut jazz recording, Mitch Plays (MMC2007J) was released in December of 1994 on the MMC label featuring both solo piano and a trio with Billy Hart on drums and Rufus Reid on bass. Mitch Swings (MMC2052J), his second jazz recording was released in 1998, and he has written a vocal chamber work, Swoon for which he wrote text as well as the music. The Helios Quartet in New York City at Merkin Hall premiered swoon in May of 1997. On November of 1997, he premiered and performed his Dark Dancing; Variations On a Theme by Arthur Schwartz for Improvised piano and orchestra for the New York Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Gerard Schwarz at Lincoln Center. The work will also be a recording to be released in 1998. His String Quartet No.1 was given a Boston premiere by the Boston Composers Quartet on WGBH national public radio in Boston. An accomplished writer as well, he writes essays on film, music, philosophy, and other arts for Organica, a journal dedicated to the arts and humanistic sciences. |
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