Biografia
Mark Hummel, originally from Los Angeles, California, is a University of Southern California alumnus. He relocated to New York to work on the Broadway musical Platinum featuring Alexis Smith. Following a year-long tour across the U.S. as Music Director for The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, he returned to New York to conduct The First, which marked David Alan Grier's Broadway debut, and Bring Back Birdie starring Donald O'Connor and Chita Rivera.
After Bring Back Birdie, Chita Rivera invited Hummel to conduct her show at The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, launching a long-standing musical partnership. Hummel composed his first dance arrangement for Rivera ("I Haven't Stopped Dancin Yet") and served as her arranger and conductor for 26 years at venues including The Sporting Club, The Ballroom, The Criterion Center, Harrah's Atlantic City, New York's Metropolitan Opera House, Feinstein's, among others. Their collaboration extended to Broadway productions such as Merlin, Jerry's Girls, Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life, and Can-Can with Chita and The Rockettes (U.S. tour and Japan).
Hummel's Broadway credits also include The Three Musketeers, Legs Diamond, the 1992 Tony Award-winning revival of Guys & Dolls, The Goodbye Girl, Face Value, Bells Are Ringing, The Boy From Oz, Sister Act, Hugh Jackman - Back On Broadway, and the Tony-winning Disney musical Newsies (Best Score and Best Choreography).
He has conducted two sold-out solo concerts at Carnegie Hall for Ann Reinking and Karen Akers, performed twice at the White House with Akers, toured Russia conducting their symphony as part of a cultural exchange, and appeared at Wolf Trap in a PBS Special, Live At Wolf Trap.
For sixteen years, Hummel was Music Director and Arranger for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Besides arranging, he composed two songs for Radio City's Christmas Across America shows and three songs for their 75th Anniversary Celebration, which aired as an NBC Christmas special in 2007. His arrangements extend to various Radio City Music Hall productions including the Easter Extravaganza, Peter Allen & The Rockettes, and 5-6-7-8 DANCE! starring Sandy Duncan.
A three-time Emmy nominee, Hummel composed, arranged, and conducted production numbers for two Academy Awards and three Tony Award broadcasts. His arrangements for the Rockettes and Newsies were showcased on ABC's Dancing With The Stars.
He provided dance music and vocal arrangements for Shirley MacLaine's concert Out There Tonight, which toured nationwide for over a year, and arranged music for Liza Minnelli's HBO special Liza At The Palladium. His work also includes arrangements for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Hummel has collaborated with numerous acclaimed choreographers such as 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.
He has conducted Bernadette Peters in concert on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson and with symphony orchestras. Hummel has also collaborated musically 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.
For more than two decades, Hummel arranged and conducted for Marcia Lewis, appearing with her on The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Carnegie Hall, Rainbow & Stars, Freddy's, and The Village Gate. He co-produced her album Marcia Lewis Nowadays.
He worked with cabaret icon Julie Wilson for over ten years, recording two albums together: Julie In Dixieland and Julie Wilson Live At The Russian Tea Room.
Lastly, Hummel crafted arrangements for three Kennedy Center Honors (Jule Styne, George Burns, Julie Andrews; earning two Emmy nominations), the Emmy-winning PBS special Broadway Sings: The Music of Jule Styne, CBS's 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.
