Episode 31: A life in music with Hank Hehmsoth

Hank Hehmsoth, an associate professor of practice in the School of Music at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss his work with Christopher Cross, music education and the fascinating discoveries he’s made in jazz research.

As a performing artist, Hehmsoth has played more than 10,000 international, national, state and regional area performances, from classical to jazz to pop/rock, as well as Broadway, concert tour music, nightclubs and symphony. He is a lifetime voting member for the Grammy Awards.

Hehmsoth teaches composition and jazz piano. His students play piano, bass, sax, flute, guitar and have won awards and scholarships including Berklee College of Music and the Patti Strickel Harrison Scholarship. Composition students learn commercial arranging and contemporary techniques in jazz. His studio includes international students from Serbia, China, South Korea and South America.

He is a MacDowell Norton Stevens fellow in composition, a National Endowment for the Arts fellow in jazz composition (1979), a Fulbright Senior Specialist in jazz studies, a National Endowment for the Arts project specialist and a research scholar for the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University.

Further reading:

Hehmsoth YouTube channel

Texas State's Hehmsoth uncovers audio trove of jazz history

Hehmsoth on Wordpress