Founding HPPAA · Austin, Texas · 2011
Hank
Hehmsoth
Founder, President, and Artistic Director
During an artist residency at MacDowell, Hank Hehmsoth worked alongside artists from different disciplines and took part in conversations about how creative work is developed, sustained, and carried into public life. Those exchanges clarified the value of an organization capable of supporting artistic work beyond a single performance, exhibition, grant, or academic appointment.
In 2011, Hehmsoth founded H Project Performing Arts Association to connect original jazz, education, Texas music history, public humanities, and interdisciplinary art through performance, research, workshops, exhibitions, partnerships, and long-term documentation.
Selected grants, fellowships & honors
Recognition across composition, research, and public practice
These selected distinctions represent sustained support for Hehmsoth’s work as a composer, performer, researcher, educator, and interdisciplinary artist.
National fellowship supporting original jazz composition, 1979.
Fellowship in music composition and MacDowell residency, 2011.
International teaching and cultural-exchange work in Chile.
First place in the NACUSA Texas Composition Competition.
Selected by ASCAP’s independent jazz awards panel in 2024 and 2025.
Performance Program support for presenting contemporary music.
Support for the composition and presentation of Carlos ’n Charlie’s.
Fellowship supporting archival jazz research and scholarship.
Recognition for excellence in scholarly and creative activity.
Institutional recognition for research and creative scholarship.
Selected artistic and scholarly achievements
A practice connecting creation, history, and public engagement
Hehmsoth’s work moves between original music, film composition, recording, archival research, publication, visual art, education, and public humanities.
Composition and recording
A catalog of original jazz and concert works, albums, ensemble projects, and live performances developed over more than four decades.
Film and media composition
Original scores include the Austin cult film Scary Movie (1991) and the National Park Service documentary about Lady Bird Johnson (1997).
Jazz research and publication
Published research, essays, interviews, archival discoveries, and public scholarship concerning jazz history, musicians, recordings, and cultural memory.
Dan Morgenstern archival work
Research and documentation connected with Dan Morgenstern’s archival legacy and the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University–Newark.
Eddie Durham research
Long-term research, publication, digital preservation, exhibitions, performances, and documentary support devoted to Texas jazz innovator Eddie Durham.
Seeing Sound / Hearing Color
An evolving interdisciplinary program connecting jazz, improvisation, visual art, exhibition, projected imagery, guided listening, workshops, and public participation.
Relationship to HPPAA
Experience placed in service of a larger mission
Hehmsoth’s professional record is presented here because it directly informs HPPAA’s work. His experience in composition, performance, education, research, nonprofit development, archival practice, and interdisciplinary art provides the foundation for the organization’s programs and public partnerships.
Through HPPAA, individual creative work becomes part of a broader public-service structure—supporting artists, presenting original music, preserving Texas cultural history, expanding access to jazz education, and building durable documentation for future audiences, researchers, and institutions.
Original performances, commissions, residencies, workshops, exhibitions, and interdisciplinary projects.
Responsible planning, administration, reporting, and public delivery of foundation, university, municipal, state, and national support.
Collaboration with musicians, educators, museums, universities, cultural organizations, archives, venues, and community partners.
Long-term care of scores, recordings, research, visual art, correspondence, authority records, and born-digital creative work.
Institutional profiles
Independent professional documentation
Institutional profiles provide independently maintained records of Hehmsoth’s academic appointments, grants, awards, research, creative work, service, and artist residencies.
Texas State University Faculty Profile
Texas State University’s faculty system documents Hehmsoth’s appointment in the School of Music, biography, grants, scholarly and creative work, honors, professional service, and downloadable faculty curriculum vitae.
MacDowell Artist Profile
MacDowell’s artist record documents Hehmsoth’s 2011 residency in music composition and his selection as the Norton Stevens Fellow.
Full career record
Additional awards, projects, publications, and performances
This HPPAA profile presents a concise institutional overview. A more extensive chronology of awards, commissions, recordings, research projects, interviews, performances, and creative work is maintained through HanksJazz and the Texas State University faculty curriculum vitae.