Performer • Composer • Musicologist
Larry Hunt, formerly Lawrence Phillip Hoogerhyde, started his musical career at age five when he performed on the piano during a school assembly program. After that initial performance, School Principal Agnes Kelly insisted that Larry, now a recognized prodigy, play piano at assemblies and
programs throughout his years at Lincoln Elementary School in Nutley.
At age eight he won a year’s worth of piano lessons at The DeJon Studios of the Creative Arts in Nutley. At age nine he performed a piano arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner at a meeting of The Women’s City Club of New York City. By age ten he was performing by memory adult level piano pieces by Chopin and other classical composers. Before age twelve he completed all
eight grades of the very demanding Trinity College of Music of London England for young classical pianists, all with honors.
Larry progressed through the Nutley school system and was the main piano accompanist for Director Raymond Kohere and Dr. Ernest Ersfeld for six years. During his teen years, he was invited to join The Amalgamated Musicians Union, a local eight-piece rock covers band of Nutley High School alumni with a horn section. This ensemble won all the local New Jersey “Battle of the
Bands” competitions for three years. Larry wrote original songs and arrangements for them at age sixteen, culminating in the band recording a soundtrack for the feature film “Fall Line” at legendary Media Sound Studios in New York City.
After high school Larry attended The Manhattan School of Music in New York City, partly funded by five local Nutley scholarships, including one from the Nutley Music Boosters Association. After two years of being a classical piano major, with a minor in voice/singing, Larry went on the road performing while mastering nearly every style of piano playing and singing: All styles and eras of
jazz, classical, rock, blues, Latino, and country music. He is a composer, lyricist, entertainer, singer, song stylist, music arranger, comedian, storyteller, musicologist, conductor, band leader, and a very powerful solo performer.
Larry has performed professionally in over two thousand venues both in the United States, seven European countries, and onboard twenty-three cruise ships, with a total of over six thousand lifetime professional gigs. He spent three and a half years touring as a keyboardist for the beloved
Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Performers and “kids of all ages” enjoyed a magical musical experience.
While in Norway and later Florida, Larry recorded eight original songs that were released in a critically acclaimed 1996 CD “Soul Survivor”. Tracks from this album have been played on Blues Public Radio in Ireland, Norway, Finland, Florida and Boston, Massachusetts. Nutley Hall of Famer Raphael Rudd
wrote the liner notes on the CD which state: “Besides being a master of Blues, Rockabilly, and Funk, as demonstrated on this album, Larry Hunt is also a first-rate Jazz and Classical pianist and composer. He also has written some excellent Pop/Rock songs. He inspired me enormously when I
was a teenager, previous to recording with Pete Townshend and Phil Collins, and to what I am doing today as a composer and recording artist.”
Larry is currently the music director at Grace United Church of Christ in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He teaches private piano students, and performs concerts and gigs in New York City, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.