Jack Stamp

American wind band conductor Jack Stamp is, unusually, also active in the world of British brass band music. He is also a composer and an educator.

Stamp was born in College Park, Maryland, on March 5, 1954. He attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania, earning a bachelor's degree in music education. Stamp went on for a master's degree in percussion performance at East Carolina University and received a doctorate in conducting from Michigan State University, studying with <a href="spotify:artist:1EVQb7k0LS2LLzfnpY5UWe">Eugene Corporon</a>. Stamp also studied composition with Robert Washburn and <a href="spotify:artist:0QG4mV28U5w3yzH9jLED6G">Fisher Tull</a>; he later went on for further composition studies with <a href="spotify:artist:2PxsMrjxQdySklBP1NkO5g">David Diamond</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5506BdXZgoHhWIZtWEGynH">Joan Tower</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:1X2h9tAUKWnt3RlUDHzfaA">Richard Danielpour</a>. From 1979 to 1982, Stamp taught at John T. Hoggard High School in Wilmington, North Carolina. He went on to serve as conductor of the Duke University Wind Symphony and the Triangle British Brass Band (his first exposure to the British brass band style) and became chair of the Division of Fine Arts at Campbell University in North Carolina. In the early '90s, Stamp joined the faculty of his alma mater, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, as professor of music and conductor of bands. He remained in that position until 2015. In 1993, he founded the <a href="spotify:artist:2G70DpSkHbpbxaDS8tTlg8">Keystone Wind Ensemble</a>, which includes students, alumni, and professors at Indiana University of Pennsylvania; with that group, he has recorded 16 albums, including Past the Equinox: Music of Jack Stamp (1994).

Stamp remained active as a composer. He often programmed his own works in performance and on recordings, but his works were also recorded by other groups such as the <a href="spotify:artist:1MU0DtoPi3KRw38z1NnV5E">North Texas Wind Symphony</a>, and by the mid-2020s, more than 65 of his works, mostly for band, had been recorded. After retiring from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Stamp served for several years as a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, and in 2018, he was acting director of bands and a conducting professor at Luther College in Iowa. The following year, Stamp was named International Composer in Association by England's <a href="spotify:artist:0SVNnCjJeO3rToe1hFkOGD">Grimethorpe Colliery Band</a>. There, he organized the 2023 recording Postcards from Grimethorpe on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Toccata+Next%22">Toccata Next</a> label, featuring works written for the <a href="spotify:artist:0SVNnCjJeO3rToe1hFkOGD">Grimethorpe Colliery Band</a> by himself, fellow composer-in-association Liz Lane, and other composers. He also wrote music for the Barcelona Clarinet Players for a new recording scheduled to be released in 2024. ~ James Manheim, Rovi