Hammonds was the first Black woman to earn a Berklee film scoring degree.
THE 2024 APPOINTMENT OF DR. LENORA HELM HAMMONDS as dean of the Professional Education Division marked a return to her alma mater, where the paths she followed for four decades as performer, record- ing artist, composer, entrepreneurial businesswom- an, and educator all converge. “I’ve lived the journey for every department in my division,” she says. That division encompasses the departments of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Music Business/Management, Music Education, Music Therapy, and Professional Music. “It’s a wonderful time to have everything I’ve learned coalesce.” During her career, Hammonds has worked in areas across the industry spectrum, from her be- ginnings as a vocalist and bandleader performing at functions in Boston to touring as a backup singer with contemporary artists Freddie Jackson and Mi- chael Franks, working as an administrator for major talent agencies, founding her own record label and publishing company, traveling internationally as a jazz ambassador for the US Department of State and the Kennedy Center, and becoming a Fulbright senior music specialist. In her varied pursuits as an educator, she has created an outreach program for public school youth in New York City, developed curriculum and led vocal workshops at the Univer- sity of Pretoria in South Africa, and guided gradu- ate-level songwriters at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark. Add to that her 20 years of ser- vice at North Carolina Central University, which cul- minated in tenured professor and music department chair positions. Hammonds was raised in humble circumstanc- es in Chicago’s South Side by parents dedicated to providing all they could for their five children. “My parents showed us that through hard work you can do anything,” she recalls. She speaks of getting “bit by the music bug” at a third-grade talent show where she and her classmates did a lip-synching skit. She took trumpet, piano, and organ lessons in elemen- tary school, but by high school was singing songs by Earth, Wind & Fire; Pink Floyd; Michael Jack- son; and others with a 10-piece band. “I was also
“I’ve lived the journey for every department in my division. It’s a wonderful time to have everything I’ve learned coalesce.”
a geeky science kid then, going to science camps,” she adds. When it came time for college, she was accepted to Purdue and Cornell and contemplated a medical career. However, through members of her cover band, she had become a jazz fan. “Someone put on John Coltrane’s rendition of ‘Nancy (with the Laughing Face),’” she relates. “There was something about the power and feeling I got listening to Col- trane that made me want to understand what he was doing so I could do it.” Once her acceptance letter from Berklee arrived, Hammonds’s heart told her to choose music over science.
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