 |
Composers Bureau
John Hilliard
Biography
John Hilliard (b. 1947, Hot Springs, Arkansas) is Professor of Music,
a resident composer and Co-Chair of the Contemporary Music Festival
at the School of Music of James Madison University. He has received
commissions and grants from various organizations and institutions,
including the Lanier Trio of Georgia State University, the Northwest
Trumpet Guild, the Young Keyboard Artists Association, James Madison
University, Cornell University, Virginia Commonwealth University,
the Mid-America Arts Council, the Fulbright Program, the American
Symphony Orchestra League, the Meet-the-Composer Program, the Virginia
Commission for the Arts in conjunction with the NEA. For over 12 summers
, Hilliard taught on the composition and theory faculty of the National
Music Camp (now Interlochen Arts Camp) at Interlochen, Michigan. Consequently,
his works have been featured on the National Public Radio Series "Music
from Interlochen", and on their recent CD sampler. He has taught previously
at Cornell University and Washington State University. In addition
in 1994, Hilliard served on the music advisory board for the North
Carolina State Arts Council.
Hilliard received his doctorate in composition from Cornell in 1983,
studying there with Pulitzer Prize winning composer Karel
Husa. While at Cornell, he studied and performed Indonesian Gamelan
music with international authority Jenny Lindsay. His other teachers
have included Donald Erb, W. Francis McBeth,
Eugene Kurtz, George Balch Wilson, Robert Palmer and Ned
Rorem. Hilliard has held residencies at the Charles Ives Center
for American Music, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and the
Tokyo-based Japan Foundation; and has been the featured guest composer
at over twenty colleges and universities around the country. His works
have been performed widely in the United States, and in the United
Kingdom, Austria, South America, Canada, Hong Kong, and Japan (NHK
television); including U.S. performances at the Kennedy Center for
Performing Arts, the World Saxophone Congresses (U.S. and London),
the International Electronic Music Plus Festival, Merkin Hall-New
York City, and at seventeen new music festivals. He has had orchestral
works performed by The Saint Louis Symphony, The Richmond Symphony
(Va), The Ithaca College Symphony, The Kansas City Conservatory Chamber
Orchestra, The Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra, The James Madison
University Symphony Orchestra, and The Danville Illinois Symphony.
Recent honors include an annual ASCAP Award, a grant from James Madison
University, a commission from the International Horn Society, and
the first place award in the Virginia Music Teachers Association's
Commissioned Composer Contest for 1992. He was one of two composers
requested to compose music for President Bill Clinton's first inauguration
in January 1993. In 1995 Hilliard was given a six-month residency
grant to be an Artistic Fellow for the Japan Foundation in Tokyo and
Nara, where he studied Gagaku, Shakuhachi, traditional Japanese music
performance, and composed. His second symphony was premiered in Feb.
of 1997 by the Danville Illinois Symphony Orchestra. Also in July
of 1997 his Five Miro Bagatelles was performed in Vienna, Austria.
For the academic year 1998-99, Hilliard was chosen as a Senior Fulbright
Scholar for a residency in Hong Kong, to compose a Mass and to teach
composition. Recent commissions include works for the Shenandoah Valley
Children's Choir, a chamber work for the contemporary music ensemble
of Kansas City, NewEar, and for James Madison University's
wind ensemble with solo piano. This last work was written in part
to commemorate the JMU Contemporary Music Festival in the year 2000.
Further Information
Contact Information
School of Music
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
E-mail: hilliajs@jmu.edu
|
 |
