DICK HYMAN BIOGRAPHY


DICK HYMAN

Throughout a busy musical career that got underway in the early '50s, Dick Hyman has functioned as pianist, organist, arranger, music director, and composer. His versatility in all of these areas has resulted in a long career involving film scores, orchestral compositions, concert appearances and well over 100 albums recorded under his own name. While developing a masterful facility for improvisation in his own piano style, Mr. Hyman has also investigated ragtime and the earliest periods of jazz and has researched and recorded the piano music of Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, James P. Johnson, Zez Confrey, Eubie Blake and Fats Waller, which he often features in his frequent recitals. Other solo recordings include the music of Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers and Duke Ellington. Some of his past recordings with combos are From The Age Of Swing, Swing Is Here, Cheek To Cheek, and If Bix Played Gershwin, plus numerous duet albums with cornetist Ruby Braff, and fellow pianists including Ralph Sutton, Shelly Berg, Derek Smith. In a very different vein, Mr. Hyman was one of the first to record on the Moog synthesizer, and his Minotaur landed on the Billboard charts.

Mr. Hyman's concert compositions for piano and orchestra include a concerto and his Ragtime Fantasy. Other works include a clarinet concerto (for Ken Peplowski), a cantata based on the autobiography of Mark Twain and Bottle It Up for voices and chamber orchestra. A growing catalog of chamber music compositions include Dances and Diversions, Danzas Tropicales, a violin/piano sonata, and miscellaneous pieces for trio, quartet, quintet, etc. Mr. Hyman has been heard in “Three-Piano Crossover” with the late Marian McPartland and Ruth Laredo, and in numerous pops concerts. After serving as artistic director for the acclaimed Jazz in July series at New York's 92nd Street Y for twenty years, he stepped down, but continues to perform individual concerts.

In addition to his activities in the jazz and concert worlds, Mr. Hyman has had a prolific career in New York as a studio musician and won seven Most Valuable Player Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He acted as music director for such television programs as Benny Goodman's final appearance (on PBS) and for In Performance at the White House. He received an Emmy for his original score for Sunshine's on the Way, a daytime drama, and another for musical direction of a PBS special on Eubie Blake. He is a member of the Jazz Hall of Fame of the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies and the New Jersey Jazz Society. In 2017, Mr. Hyman received the Jazz Master Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as an honorary doctorate from the Julliard School of Music.

In years past, Dick Hyman was music director for Arthur Godfrey as well as orchestrator of the hit musical Sugar Babies. He has served as composer/arranger/conductor/pianist for the Woody Allen films Zelig, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Broadway Danny Rose, Stardust Memories, Hannah and Her Sisters, Radio Days, Bullets Over Broadway, Mighty Aphrodite, Everyone Says "I Love You", Sweet and Lowdown, The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion and Melinda and Melinda. Other scores have included Moonstruck, Scott Joplin, The Lemon Sisters, and Alan and Naomi.

In the dance field, Mr. Hyman composed and performed the score for the Cleveland/San Jose Ballet Company's Piano Man, and for several dances for Twyla Tharp.

Dick Hyman's Century Of Jazz Piano, an encyclopedic series of solo performances, has been released on Arbors Records, while a transcription is published by Hal Leonard Music. Other newer recordings are with clarinetist Ken Peplowski, singer Heather Masse, and Mr. Hyman's daughter, violinist Judy Hyman.

Mr. Hyman is a Yamaha artist.

May 2018 DICK HYMAN MUSIC, INC.
c/o Judy Hyman
632 Bostwick Road
Ithaca, NY 14850
Dick's PH: 941-485-9506
Judy's PH: 607-220-4043
Email: dick@dickhyman.com
judy@judyhyman.com
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SELECTED CONCERT PIECES OF DICK HYMAN
(Pieces are also under the "Folios" section.)
 
PIANO SOLO
Five Propositions for Piano
    Little Girls at Play
    Little Boys at Play
    Isn't It Odd
    Marriage in Two Keys
    Aria
Improvisations on Joplin (variations on 12 rags)
Thinking About Bix (original homage to Bix Beiderbecke)
Barrel of Keys (stride)
The Old Professor (novelty ragtime)
Indiana Variations (12 original pieces based on Back Home Again in Indiana)
Three Raps for Piano
Variations on Shenandoah
15 Etudes for Jazz Piano (original pieces in the manner of the great pianists)
Piano Man: a full performance-length ballet arranged from the Etudes with additional material.
 
CHAMBER MUSIC
Duos
Sonata for Violin and Piano (in 3 movements)
The Minotaur: violin, piano
Andantino for Two: violin, piano
Clarinata: clarinet, piano (additional strings optional)
Counterpoint for Two Trumpets (7 modern jazz duets, suitable for other instruments)
 
Trios
Trio for Violin, Piano, Cello (in 3 movements)
Parable for a Parrot: flute, clarinet, piano
 
Quartets
String Quartet in G (in 3 movements)
Dances & Diversions for String Quartet (in 3 movements)
Scherzo for Saxophone Quartet
 
Quintets
Quintet for Piano & Strings (in 3 movements)
Quintet for Brass (medley of 6 pieces from imaginary 1913 show, "For Heaven's Sake")
Novelties for Piano & Saxophone Quartet (4 individual pieces)
 
Sextets
Sextet for Piano & Strings (in 4 movements)
Sextet for Clarinets (in 3 movements)
Danzas Tropicales (piano, flute, clarinet, viola, string bass, drums (also arranged for 2 pianos)
 
ORCHESTRAL
Concerto for Piano & Orchestra "Concerto Electro" (in 3 movements)
Dick Hyman’s Concerto Electro, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was recorded in 1969. As an active member of both New York’s jazz and studio worlds, he had absorbed elements of jazz, rock, country, and blues which he merged into an original 24 minute composition in three movements and recorded with a remarkable studio orchestra under the direction of conductor Nick Perito. The concertmaster was David Nadien; bass: Bob Haggart; guitar: Tony Mottola; drums: Bob Rosengarden; percussion: Phil Krauss; clarinet: Phil Bodner; trumpet: Mel Davis --- all associates of Mr. Hyman in the many recording studios of New York.
First Movement    Second Movement    Third Movement
Concerto for Piano & Orchestra No. 2 (in 3 movements)
Ragtime Fantasy for Piano & Orchestra
Piper Patriot of '76 for Piccolo and Orchestra (also orchestrated for piccolo and band)
From Chama to Cumbres by Steam for orchestra, jazz group, & prerecorded tape
Adventures of Tom Sawyer (ballet score)
 
VOCAL
Songs from the Plays of Shakespeare, soloist with piano, selections arranged for chorus
Songs from Willard Espy's Almanac of Words at Play, soloist with piano, selections arranged for chorus
Autobiography of Mark Twain, setting for chorus and orchestra
 
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