Sean Hamilton (7)

USAmerican percussionist, composer, improviser, and audio engineer from Pennsylvania, USA, currently based in Western Colorado. His work primarily focuses on creating musical structures and opportunities that blend composed elements with improvisation, taking influence from avant-garde and experimental music, free improvisation, electroacoustic music, noise, and sound art. Sean has performed in over 30 states and 6 countries, including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Austria with notable performances including the Interference Series, Skronk Sessions, Oakland Freedom Jazz Society, the Racer Sessions, MOXSonic, the Gallery at Avalon Island (Orlando), the Luggage Store Gallery, and the SEAMUS National Conference. He has presented additional work at the Asheville and Orlando Fringe Festivals, the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Art in Odd Places Orlando, WKCR-FM New York, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the Charles Adams Studio Project. Sean has also presented lectures on percussion, improvisation, and composition at various universities in the United States and United Kingdom, including the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Arizona State University, New York University, the University of South Carolina, the University of Nebraska, Goldsmiths University of London, the University of Leeds, and City University of London. Sean is a regular collaborator with visual artists, dancers, choreographers, and musicians, having previously worked with artists including VERB Ballets, New Orleans Airlift, Lindsey Kelley Dance, Death Posture, Eli Blasko, Tatsuya Nakatani, Jacqui Dugal, Tory Tepp, and Rogue Dance. Notable projects include two weeks of creative research at the Phoenix Dance Theatre’s Choreographers and Composers Lab in Leeds, UK, emit:time and Lick in Nude with Lindsey Kelley Dance, several collaborations with visual artist Eli Blasko, an evening-length collaboration with Tatsuya Nakatani, and extensive collaboration with Tory Tepp for Earthtones, a project that combines land art, urban agriculture, and improvisational music making. In addition to his creative practice, Sean is an audio engineer specializing in live sound production and has produced audio for the St. Petersburg Opera (FL), the Vail Dance Festival, the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra, GoPro Mountain Games, the Vail Jazz Festival, the Florida Dance Festival, and various popular music concerts and festivals. Sean holds a Master of Music degree in percussion performance and music composition from the University of South Florida, where he studied with Robert McCormick (percussion), Baljinder Sekhon, and Paul Reller (composition). He also holds a BM in Music Education from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania where his studies included percussion, composition, jazz/improvisation, and pedagogy. Outside of his formal studies, Sean has studied percussion, composition, repertoire, and performance practice with Stuart Saunders Smith and Sylvia Smith, repertoire with Christian Wolff, composition with Robert Morris, and vibraphone with Berndt Thurner (Vienna).