Guitarist, pianist, composer, educator, producer, music publisher, author, luthier — Mitch Haupers recently celebrated the completion of his 30th year as a Professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.
 

He recently celebrated the completion of his 30th year as Professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. His distinguished teaching career at Berklee (with specialties in ear training, harmony and improvisation) was first recognized in 1995, during the 50th anniversary of the college, when he was chosen as recipient of the Dean of Faculty Award for “the most valuable contribution to the improvement of teaching,” citing his tireless dedication to his students, including his influential work with learning disabled students, his unique and effective teaching concepts, as well as his seminal work as the creator/producer of the World Rhythm Lecture Series and creator/chair of the Committee for Music Perception and Cognition Studies at Berklee. He has recently been honored with the newly-created 2015 Distinguished Faculty Award for excellence in teaching to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the annual seminar, Berklee Teachers on Teaching.

Haupers’ recording of original compositions entitled, Invisible Cities: Original Jazz & Chamber Music, has been favorably reviewed in major music publications. The full scores and lead sheets are published through Liquid Harmony Music, BMI. The excerpt Four Minor Love Songs Suite, produced along with Haupers by Yellowjackets co-founder and bassist, Jimmy Haslip, was funded in part by a successful pledge drive at Kickstarter, and features performances by members of the Boston Pops, as well as other world-class musicians such as Brooke deRosa, Peter Erskine, Russell Ferrante, Eugene Friesen, Barbara LaFitte, Mike Miller, Bob Mintzer, Darek Oles, Isabelle Olivier and Alan Pasqua.

Over the past forty years, Haupers has worked within the music and recording industry in a wide variety of areas including public relations, sales, art design and promotion. He is experienced in jazz festival production including performances featuring Kenny Barron, Ran Blake, Stan Getz, Mick Goodrick, Dave Holland, Bob Moses, Lewis Nash, George Russell and Gunther Schuller. His professional experience also extends to classical orchestral management and touring, as well as concert management for MacArthur Award recipients and other world-famous jazz artists. 

From 2001-2009, Haupers was the Managing Partner of Mr. Goodchord Publications, a collaborative publishing project through his own Liquid Harmony Music, that produced six books with renowned jazz guitarist, Mick Goodrick. The partnership was originally formed to bring the series, Mr. Goodchord’s Almanacs of Guitar Voice-Leading, to the public marketplace. He is co-author with Goodrick of the rhythm-training book entitled, Factorial Rhythm: For All Instruments, currently in its second edition. In addition, he created piano arrangements of Goodrick’s original compositions, Thirty Six Solo Pieces for Fingerstyle Guitar. In 2009, he created, produced and taught at the successful Mr. Goodchord’s Summer Workshop in Northampton, MA, designed to integrate the book materials into daily practice and teaching for participants. His presentation and teaching of the Goodchord materials to world-class musicians and composers has been influential, as shown in acknowledgements on recordings such as Yellowjackets, Altered State (Heads Up) and Pat Metheny Group, The Way Up (Nonesuch).

Haupers is co-author of several core curriculum ear training books still in use at Berklee. He is also the author of professional articles, including two features for Keyboard magazine on the subject of voice leading and a third, along with Yellowjackets’ co-founder Russell Ferrante, on the contributions of jazz pianist Bill Evans to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the milestone recording with Miles Davis, Kind of Blue. In addition, he wrote the liner notes for Peter Erskine’s New Trio CD, Joy Luck (Fuzzy Music) and penned the foreword to Erskine’s critically acclaimed book, No Beethoven: An Autobiography and Chronicle of Weather Report (Alfred Press).