Lance HulmeComposer Lance Hulme has a multi-faceted career as keyboardist, conductor, arranger, educator and critic. His music has been performed throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia and South America and has garnered both critical and audience acclaim. Compact disk releases of his music include Flame Dance: The Music of Lance Hulme (Albany Records 998), Kindred Spirits (Bridge Records 9260) and The Anthems for the New Century (WWCC-7414) Critics have described Hulme as a “chameleon composer” (Gilles Quental) whose musical oeuvre encompasses a “wide range” (Knowing the Score) of musical genres and styles. His compositional style “cannot be pigeon-holed into one compositional school” (Die Badische Neueste Nachrichten) but rather draws upon the diverse elements of his musical experience to “weave a rich expressive texture.” (Die Rheinpfalz Zeitung) His music “reflects the ambience and musical approach of the North American musical tradition. Compositional eclecticism, a conscience, playful and uninhibited attitude with tradition and the crossover between‘serious’ and vernacular music. All these elements are to be found as well as the most advanced structural and aural techniques” (Die Rheinpfalz Zeitung).

Hulme’s music has won many awards including Grand Prize, International Witold Lutoslawski Composition Competition, 1st Prize, ASCAP/Rudolf Nissim Prize, Grand Prize, International Trumpet Guild Composition Competition and awards from the Composición Musical Cuitat de Tarragona, Citta di Trieste Orchestra Competition and the Ladislav Kubik Composition Competition. Notable performances and commissions include Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Southern German Radio, the State Theater of Baden, the State Orchestra of Magdeburg, West German Radio, the Karlsruhe University Chorus, the Raschèr Saxophone Orchestra, Quattro Mani, the Henschell Quartet and others.

Lance Hulme holds degrees from the Yale University School of Music (DMA), the Eastman School of Music (MM), and the University of Minnesota (BM). He also studied at the Universität für Musik in Vienna, Austria.

From the beginning, Lance Hulme pursued an eclectic musical career encompassing many different aspects of music-making. His career as conductor began with the premiere of a piece written for his high school orchestra in suburban St. Paul, Minnesota. Throughout his undergraduate study of classical composition, Lance Hulme played keyboards in various jazz bands and other ensembles, wrote and directed musicals and stage music and transcribed and arranged music for other performers. An interim period followed where he was keyboardist for the jazz-fusion band Dreamscape and was associated with the then Minnesota Composers Forum. Following graduate study, he went to Vienna, Austria on a Fulbright Grant, staying in Europe for seventeen years. During that time, he co-founded and directed Ensemble Surprise, an eclectic chamber ensemble which featured “700 years of new music”, of which he was the “Rector Spiritus who knows exactly what to do with such an ensemble” (Die Rheinpfalz) He also worked as a freelance musician, arranger and transcriber for a wide variety of institutions, ensembles and individuals and taught at various institutions. As solo pianist, he has been described as “a carefully prepared virtuoso” (Die Badische Neueste Nachrichten) and continues to perform and accompany vocal musicians. An offer to teach brought him back to the U.S. and he is presently professor at North Carolina Central University where he teaches music theory, aural skills and composition.

Hulme’s interests also include music technology, both as composer and educator. His compositions using computers have been presented in many venues including interactive collaborations with choreographers and visual artists. His educational software uses technology to achieve remarkable results in aural skills and music fundamentals. He is also a sound engineer and has produced many recordings including his own compact disk release with Albany Records.

Hulme can be reached at or