After graduating as valedictorian of Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Washington, DC in 2002, Alvin Ellsworth Hough, Jr. studied Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard College and graduated in 2006. Fascinated by inclement weather while growing up, his passion led him to the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he earned his Master’s in Meteorology in 2008. Although his focus while in school was on meteorology, Alvin is blessed to have yet another passion, which happens to be music.

Alvin started playing piano on Halloween when he was 5 years old. He was playfully tickling the ivories with several of his friends after school one day. When his mother came to pick him up, the teacher said that “Alvin wasn’t banging on the piano like all the other kids. He seemed to be trying to do something. Get the kid some lessons and see what happens.” He’s now been playing for over 23 years and has toured the country playing for private events and in concert halls both on his own and with accomplished singers. Alvin has even voluntarily gone into high schools and colleges with some of the singers he accompanies to offer words of advice and motivation to students who desire to pursue their dreams in the arts.

After having already been out on the road as the Associate Conductor and interim Musical Director of the DREAMGIRLS national tour in 2010 and as the Musical Director/Conductor of the first national tour of the Tony Award-winning sensation MEMPHIS in 2011-12, Alvin has established himself as a strong fixture in New York as a musical director, conductor, arranger, vocal coach and accompanist. Classically trained by a private teacher, Alvin was born and raised in DC and has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Capitol and the White House, as well as for numerous regional theatres throughout DC, Maryland and Virginia. From Vienna, Tokyo and Paris to New York, Toronto and Los Angeles, he has performed worldwide – in opera houses, theatres, cathedrals and everywhere in between. Now based in Manhattan, Alvin is the Assistant Conductor and Keyboard 2 player of MOTOWN the Musical, Berry Gordy’s new Broadway masterpiece at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Check out Motown the Musical for more details about the show!