David Amram (born November 17, 1930) is an American composer, conductor, multi-instrumentalist, and author. As a classical composer and performer, his integration of
jazz (including being one of the first noted as an improvising jazz
French hornist), folkloric and
world music has led him to work with the likes of
Dizzy Gillespie,
Lionel Hampton,
Willie Nelson,
Langston Hughes,
Charles Mingus,
Pepper Adams,
Leonard Bernstein,
Sir James Galway,
Tito Puente,
Mary Lou Williams,
Joseph Papp,
Arthur Miller,
Arturo Sandoval,
Stan Getz,
Pete Seeger,
Elia Kazan,
Christopher Plummer,
Henry Kissinger,
Ingrid Bergman,
Odetta,
Lord Buckley,
Dustin Hoffman,
Steve Allen,
Machito,
Earl "Fatha" Hines,
Allen Ginsberg,
Nina Simone,
Gregory Corso,
Bob Dylan,
Steve Goodman,
Gerry Mulligan,
Sonny Rollins,
T.S. Monk,
Hunter S. Thompson,
Johnny Depp,
Levon Helm,
Betty Carter and
Jack Kerouac. In the early 1950s, he was encouraged to pursue his unique path by mentors
Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, the
New York Philharmonic's conductor
Dimitri Mitropoulos,
Miles Davis,
Aaron Copland,
Gunther Schuller, and visual artists
Jackson Pollock,
Joan Mitchell,
Willem de Kooning and
Franz Kline. Today, as he has for over 50 years, Amram continues to compose music while traveling the world as a conductor, soloist, bandleader, visiting scholar, and narrator in five languages.