Kirk Hamilton, Urban music teacher, is a multi-instrumentalist composer and songwriter. After growing up in Bloomington, Indiana, he studied jazz saxophone at the University of Miami in Florida and moved to San Francisco in 2003.

Getting together with singers Dan Apczynski (from Squaretape) and Lindsay Garfield (from Or, The Whale), as well as all of the instrumentalists he'd met and worked with in San Francisco over the past five years, Kirk set about writing an album of honest, fun, elaborately orchestrated pop music.

"The Exited Door" is that record. The product of a year's worth of writing, rehearsing, and recording, it features over twenty of the best players in the Bay Area (and beyond) on thirteen carefully crafted pop tunes.

Featuring - Urban students!
Cover and back artwork by Amira Hankin ('09), Inside jacket artwork by Julia Hankin ('11)
Studio Assistance by Sam Tygiel ('09) and Daniel Moattar ('10)

The record also features a lot of Urban talent - current/former students Galen Rogers (class of '08), Julia Heller ('09), and Lily Moebes ('10) contributed musically, as well as fellow Urban music men Scott Foster and Alex Kelly. Kirk also notes, "We tracked a lot of the larger sessions in the studio at school, with help from alums of the MPE class."

Enjoy!