SAM HYLTON

Pianist and composer Sam Hylton was born in 1992 in Spokane, Washington, USA, where he developed an early interest in jazz and improvised music. He attended the University of Washington in Seattle, pursuing parallel bachelor degrees in Jazz Studies (under Profs. Cuong Vu, Ted Poor & Marc Seales) and Germanics. Upon graduating in 2014, he moved to Munich to continue studying at the University of Music and Theatre Munich (HMTM). In 2016 he completed his master's degree in Jazz Piano Performance and a second master's in 2021 in Jazz Composition under Profs. Christian Elsässer and Gregor Hübner.

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In 2015 he joined the faculty of the HMTM department of Composition for Film and Media as adjunct lecturer for jazz harmony and composition, whereupon he began collaborations with German film composer Gerd Baumann. Hylton’s piano is heard exclusively in Baumann’s soundtrack for the 2019 Marcus H. Rosenmüller film, Trautmann. He has written for the Munich Composer's Collective (MCC), the Bergson Kunstkraftwerk, the Bayan Mongol Big Band, Claus Reichstaller & the Sirius Quartet.

Hylton has performed and taught throughout the world, including in the US, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, and Mongolia. He is a member of the electronic jazz collective Ark Noir, Gerd Baumann’s Parade, Hannah Weiss Group, has performed with Billy Hart and Bill Frisell, and has learned from Ben Wendel, Aaron Parks, Richie Beirach, Ben Street, Larry Grenadier, Craig Taborn, and Gerald Clayton among others. Hylton was awarded the 2019 Jazzpreis der Konzertgesellschaft München and the 2021 BMW Welt Young Artist Jazz Award.