Eugene Uman is the director of the Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro Vermont where he has produced hundreds of concerts and educational programs since 1997. The VJC was offered a 2014 Chamber Music America Acclaim award acknowledging his programming and outreach. Uman is a pianist, a composer and an educator. His current working ensemble is the Convergence Project – a working group that performs and records Uman’s compositions, many of which include references to Colombian rhythms and forms. This ensemble has produced 2 albums of Uman’s original material. He also performs regularly with a host of New England’s finest musicians. Uman has written over 120 jazz compositions that have been arranged for various musical ensembles ranging from big band to world music ensembles to rock bands. Three of Uman’s original compositions were recorded by Latin Jazz star Sammy Figueroa on his 2005 Grammy Nominated CD: In Walked Sammy. He has been commissioned by the Big Band of Medellín and the Windham Symphony. Uman served as MacDowell Colony Fellow in composition in March of 2011
Uman received his masters in Jazz Performance and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Queens College in New York where he received a Eubie Blake Scholarship. He also attended advanced workshops led by Eddie Palmieri, Dave Liebman, Ran Blake and others. Uman has taught in New York City at the Third Street Music Settlement and in Medellín, Colombia at El Colegio de Musica, Universidad de Antioquia and Universidad EAFIT. He designed the curriculum and initiated the Jazz Studies program at the Universidad EAFIT. He currently teaches at the Vermont Jazz Center and is adjunct professor of music at Amherst College. He has taught for twelve summers at the Governor’s Institute of the Arts and Jazz Vermont, and has been the director of the Vermont Jazz Center Summer Jazz Workshop since 1997. Uman is active in his community and received a Community Person of the Month Award. He has served on the Board of Directors of several organizations, was a member of the Brattleboro Town Arts Committee for two years. He currently hosts a Tuesday-night radio show on Radio Station WVEW FM 107.7 FM.
Eugene Uman can be reached at the Vermont Jazz Center at 802 254 9088
or by email at [email protected]
