Skip Wilkins – Director
Skip Wilkins was born in Massachusetts and raised in a musical family. He became interested in jazz at an early age and found his way to the stage in kindergarten. He learned to love singing, played drums for years, but then focused on piano, which became his main instrument by his late teens. As he was coming up in Boston, he worked with drummers Joe Hunt and Bob Moses and with saxophonists Jimmy Mosher and John LaPorta.
For many years, Skip has maintained an active international career as a pianist, composer, workshop presenter, jazz choral director and educator. He will release his fourteenth CD as a leader or co-leader later this summer and has performed with a host of international luminaries throughout his career. He performed often with Phil Woods, and is a featured soloist on Phil’s final big band release New Celebration. Wherever he has lived, he has performed with and collaborated with top stars whenever they came to town – Phil Woods, David Liebman, Plas Johnson, Mark Murphy, Clark Terry, David Sánchez, Stanley Turrentine, Bobby Watson, Bob Dorough, Conte Candoli and Peter Erskine, among so many others.
Skip performs throughout Europe in a variety of ensembles, with regular tours to the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, Italy, Greece and France. Stateside, he lives at Deer Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap, PA, surrounded by the great jazz community there. He is associate professor of Music at Lafayette College, where he teaches courses in music theory and jazz improvisation, and directs the Jazz Ensemble.
Skip has two 2019 CD releases featuring his son Daniel, including Czech Wishes (Jan. 2019, recorded in Prague) & Someday (Aug. 2019, recorded in the U.S.). Some previous releases include Trio WUH Live at Jazzinec (2014), Czech Dreams (2013), Father & Son – with his son Daniel (2012), After (2011), I Concentrate on You (2011), Frýdlant Nights (2010), and many more. He looks forward to the spring 2020 CD release of In Morava, a trio project he recorded in Prague with Josef Fečo and Tomáš Hobzek, with guest performances by Rostislav Fraš.
Each summer since 2007, Skip has taught and performed at the Karel Velebny Summer Jazz Workshop in Frýdlant, Czech Republic. He has often led the Jazz Ateliér at the Summer Choral Workshop in Lomnice u Tišnova, and twice taught at the International Jazz Workshop, Kryoneri, Greece. Each summer, he teaches at COTA Camp Jazz and the Summer Jazz Camp at Moravian College, both in Pennsylvania, and gives workshops in Europe and the U.S.