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Jazz Studies

Meet Alex Hamburger

I could easily go on and on about all the musical things I learned and how they helped me grow into the musician I am today but what’s really special about Purchase is the family and the community.

Alex Hamburger, Class of ’17
Flutist, vocalist, baritone saxophonist and composer

In 2013 I began school at Purchase College (SUNY) and what I didn’t know was that I had just entered into a life long family of musicians, young and old from varying different angles of the scene that would be my colleagues and friends for the rest of my life.

I could easily go on and on about all the musical things I learned and how they helped me grow into the musician I am today but what’s really special about Purchase is the family and the community. Not only is it a community that supported and been there for every step of my musical and personal growth, but it’s also a family who has pushed me to get me to places I could have never have imagined.

I was living in New York City, playing in many varying situations, from straight ahead to musical theatre to hip hop to Afro beat to big band to free improvisation to original music, including two of my own original projects; I can truly say that my experience at Purchase prepared me for and exposed me to it all.

This year I am currently living in Basel Switzerland doing a program at the Musik Akademie’s Jazzcampus entitled Focusyear, which is a an internationally assembled ensemble of nine students, who are coached by masters of the international Jazz scene. Over the course of the year, the ensemble creates concert programs, records an album and performs regularly both on campus and on tours.

Every day here, working with extremely high level musicians from all over the country, I find the things I learned at Purchase about playing and working with people from different backrounds coming out and helping guide me through this new chapter. 

 

Alex has recently graduated from the Conservatory of Music at SUNY Purchase in New York as a James Moody Scholar as well as the recipient of the President’s Award for the Conservatory of Music. Alex has had the honor of sharing the stage with incredible musicians such as Gary Bartz, Randy Brecker, Javon Jackson, Warren Wolf, Gary Smulyan, Tyshawn Sorrey, Vijay Iyer, Carmen Bradford, Alexis Cole, and Marcus McLauren at world renowned venues such as Birdland, Smalls, The Blue Note, The Stone, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, The Kennedy Center, Bethesda Blues and Jazz, Bohemian Caverns, The Falcon, The Zinc Bar and more.

Alex has also had the honor of playing in many prestigious jazz festivals around the country including The Telluride Jazz Festival, The Jazz Educators Network Conference, The Cleveland Jazz Festival, The Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival and The Washington Women in Jazz Festival Award, where she was a finalist in their Young Artist Competition. In April 2017, Alex was selected to be a part of the Banff Jazz and Creative music festival as well as being chosen as one of the 5 finalists chosen for the Ella Fitzgerald Competition. Alex was also the co-front and leader of the HD Quintet who played all over New York as well as having been on two tours of the East Coast and released their album “Live in the Studio” in May 2015.