Meet Kristen Hampton

Raised in New York City and Vermont, Kristen Shepherd Hampton started learning piano at age eight and voice at age 16. At Macalester College, she taught herself to play guitar and founded the college’s first a cappella group, which has flourished. Earning a degree in Anthropology, Kristen then moved to Seattle, where she performed as a singer-songwriter, eventually enrolling in Cornish College of the Arts to study music composition and ethnomusicology. 

After a 10-year break, she and her Macalester sweetheart reunited and Kristen moved to Washington, D.C. There, she joined the McLean School of Potomac to found their middle-school and high-school music programs, teaching general music, chorus, and band, as well as guitar and percussion electives. While in D.C., Kristen also performed with several area choruses, including twice at the White House.  When her husband accepted a professorship at Emory, Kristen moved with their new baby to Atlanta where she taught the MusikGarten curriculum at the Clifton schools. After her second baby went to elementary school, Kristen was hired to teach band, chorus, percussion, ukulele and general music at Hess Academy. During the pandemic Kristen taught local students online, as well as adults in Washington state, Geneva, Switzerland, and Toulouse, France.