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Mitchell Feldman

Mitchell Feldman has been publicizing, promoting and marketing jazz, classical and world music since 1979 and has been a freelance journalist covering music, culture, travel, personalities and other topics as well as a jazz radio programmer since 1976.

About Me

Mitchell Feldman has been publicizing, promoting and marketing jazz, classical and world music since 1979 and has been a freelance journalist covering music, culture, travel, personalities and other topics as well as a jazz radio programmer since 1976. Founded in 1996 in Manhattan, NYC as a performing arts media relations and marketing communications firm, Mitchell Feldman Associates (MFA) was based there until Feldman moved to Italy where he lived from 1999-2003 and among other activities covered the Italian and French jazz scenes as the resident correspondent for these countries for Downbeat Magazine. Feldman expanded MFA to include jazz radio promotion in 2004 upon his return to the US.

MFA been based in the village of Lodtunduh south of Ubud, the cultural and spiritual center of Bali, Indonesia, since May 2018. The firm was previously located in El Granada (Half Moon Bat), CA from June 2017-April 2018; in Fairview, NC, outside Asheville from December 2011-May 2017; in Augusta, GA (where Feldman's family moved from New York City in 1972) from June 2006 - November 2011; and from January 2004 - May 2006 in Denver, CO (where Feldman settled after returning from living in Italy for 4 years to launch a jazz division for the music-marketing firm INDIEgo Promotions and revive the jazz label Synergy Music .

From 1989 until 1996, Feldman held various staff positions as an arts publicist-marketing communications specialist. During the 1995-96 season, he was a press representative for pianists Alfred Brendel, Garrick Ohlsson, Barry Douglas and Ursula Oppens; the Juilliard String Quartet; the baroque orchestra Tafelmusik; countertenor Derek Lee Ragin among others as Senior Publicist at the classical music PR firm Hemsing Associates. During the 1994-95 season, Feldman was Director of Marketing & Communications at Symphony Space responsible for publicity, advertising and marketing activities for classical, new music, world music, jazz and dance events; repertory films; the Selected Shorts literary series, and family programs. In 1993, he consulted with the Cultural Olympiad of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta and the City of Atlanta Office of Olympic Coordination. From 1989-92, Feldman was a Marketing & Media Relations Manager at New York’s 92nd Street Y, promoting concerts, lectures and other audience events at the Tisch Center for the Arts, Bronfman Center for Jewish Life and Center for Adult Life & Learning.

From 1985-89, Feldman lived in Düsseldorf, Germany and was Managing Director of CMP Records, a now inactive boutique label that produced jazz, World Music and New Music recordings. From 1981-85, he was a member of Andrew Young's campaign and mayoral staffs in Atlanta. During the 1980-81 season Feldman was Director of Music Programs & Public Relations for the City of Atlanta Department of Cultural Affairs and created and produced the City of Atlanta's World Music Concert Series that presented the Southeastern premieres of the South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, the Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos, the German vibraphonist Karl Berger and the American violinist Leroy Jenkins in solo recitals in 1981. He also produced the 1980 Atlanta Free Jazz Festival featuring homecoming performances by native Atlantans Mary Lou Williams, Marion Brown and George Adams and the Southeastern premieres of the duo Egwu-Anwu featuring multi- instrumentalists Joseph Jarman and Famoudou Don Moye and the Arthur Blythe Quintet.

Feldman, who was born in Manhattan on July 27, 1955, received a BA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in May 1976 and an MA in Journalism from the University of Georgia (UGA) in March 1980. His masters thesis, Impressions of Newport: A Content Analysis of Coverage of An American Jazz Festival in Six Publications from 1954-1978 (1980), was one of the first academic studies of jazz journalism and criticism. While at UGA Feldman produced the Southeastern premieres of the Sam Rivers- Dave Holland Duo, the Sam Rivers Quartet and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. He was also a member of UGA’s Contemporary Concert Committee from 1976-1977; Music Director of UGA’s non-commercial radio station WUOG-FM from 1977-78; and Jazz Director from 1977-79.

From June 1999 to October 2003 Feldman lived in Umbria, Tuscany and Sardinia, Italy, where he worked as a writer and translator, was a contributor to the features section of the International Herald Tribune’s Italy Daily and a European correspondent for DownBeat. In 2003 Feldman received a grant from the Berger-Carter Fund of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University to support his research on the history of jazz in Europe that he shared at a symposium on that subject at the 2003 Grenoble (France) Jazz Festival. His update of the Cadogan Guide to Sardinia (3rd edition) was published in June 2004. From July 2004 through May 2006 Feldman hosted “Friday Night Jazz” at Jazz 89 KUVO in Denver, CO. He then produced and hosted the weekly program “Jazz Without Borders” on the 18-station Georgia Public Broadcasting Radio network from October 2006 through October 2008 and on the internet channel TaintRadio.org from November 2008 through August 2011.

My Jazz Story

The first jazz record I bought was California Concert (CTI).