Biography
Mark Hummel is a native of Los Angeles, California, and a graduate of the University of Southern California. He moved to New York with the Broadway musical Platinum starring Alexis Smith. After traveling the United States for a year as Music Director for The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, he returned to New York to conduct The First starring David Alan Grier in his Broadway debut, and Bring Back Birdie starring Donald O'Connor and Chita Rivera.
After Birdie, Chita Rivera asked Mr. Hummel to conduct her act at The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, and this was the beginning of a long musical relationship. Mr. Hummel wrote his first dance music arrangement for Rivera ("I Haven't Stopped Dancin Yet") and for twenty-six years he continued as her arranger and conductor for diverse events such as The Sporting Club, The Ballroom, The Criterion Center, Harrah's Atlantic City, New York's Metropolitan Opera House, Feinstein's, and many more. He continued to work with Chita Rivera on Broadway musicals including Merlin, Jerry's Girls, Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life and Can-Can w/ Chita and The Rockettes (U.S. tour and Japan).
Mr. Hummel has also worked on the Broadway shows The Three Musketeers, Legs Diamond, the 1992 Tony award-winning revival Guys & Dolls, The Goodbye Girl, Face Value, Bells Are Ringing, The Boy From Oz, Sister Act, Hugh Jackman - Back On Broadway, and the Tony award-winning Disney musical Newsies (Best Score and Best Choreography).
Mr. Hummel has conducted two sold-out, one-woman shows at Carnegie Hall for Ann Reinking and Karen Akers. In addition, he has played the White House twice with Ms. Akers, toured Russia on a cultural exchange program conducting their symphony, and performed at Wolf Trap - which was recorded as a PBS Special Live At Wolf Trap.
For sixteen years, Mark Hummel served as Music Director and Arranger for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. In addition to arranging for the show, Mr. Hummel composed two songs for Radio City's Christmas Across America productions, and composed three songs for their 75th Anniversary Celebration, which also was an NBC Christmas special in 2007. He has arranged many production numbers for Radio City Music Hall, including the Easter Extravaganza, Peter Allen & The Rockettes, and 5-6-7-8 DANCE! starring Sandy Duncan.
A three-time Emmy Award nominee, Mr. Hummel composed/arranged/conducted production numbers for two Academy Awards and three Tony Award telecasts. His arrangements for the Rockettes and the Newsies were featured on the ABC television show Dancing With The Stars.
Mr. Hummel wrote dance music and vocal arrangements for Shirley MacLaine's concert evening entitled Out There Tonight which toured America for over a year, and he arranged music for Liza Minnelli in HBO's Liza At The Palladium. He has also written arrangements for Ringling Brothers, and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Mark Hummel has had the great pleasure of collaborating and writing dance music with numerous, award-winning choreographers including Jeff Calhoun, Warren Carlyle, Christopher Chadman, Wayne Cilento, A.C. Ciulla, Grover Dale, Graciela Daniele, Marguerite Derricks, Ron Field, Christopher Gattelli, Peter Gennaro, Linda Haberman, Alan Johnson, Joe Layton, Joey McKneely, Jerry Mitchell, Walter Painter, Ann Reinking, Josh Rhodes, Michael Shawn, Anthony Van Laast, Lester Wilson and Dee Dee Woods.
Mr. Hummel has conducted Bernadette Peters in concert at The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson and with symphony orchestras. He also has created music with Tommy Tune, Barbara Cook, Donna Murphy, Amra-Faye Wright, Paul Sorvino, Donna McKechnie, Malcolm Gets, Rufus Wainwright, Joel Grey, Sam Harris, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Nell Carter, Helen Schneider, Phillip Officer, Stefanie Powers, and Marcia Lewis.
Additionally, Mr. Hummel has arranged and conducted for Marcia Lewis for over twenty years, performing on the Rosie O'Donnell Show, Carnegie Hall, Rainbow & Stars, Freddy's, and The Village Gate. He also co-produced her album entitled Marcia Lewis Nowadays.
For over 10 years Mr. Hummel worked with cabaret legend Julie Wilson. They recorded two albums together: Julie In Dixieland, Julie Wilson Live At The Russian Tea Room.
Finally, Mark Hummel has written arrangements for three Kennedy Center Honors (Jule Styne, George Burns, Julie Andrews; two Emmy nominations), the Emmy Award-winning PBS Broadway Sings: The Music of Jule Styne, CBS' Irving Berlin's 100th Birthday Celebration (Emmy nomination), the Boston Pops with orchestrator Michael Gibson, and the Inaugural Gala for President George H.W. Bush.
