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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).