Daron Hagen (b. 1961, Milwaukee) established his national reputation in the early eighties with performances by the New York Philharmonic (Philharmonia, commissioned to celebrate the orchestra's 150th anniversary in 1992), and the Philadelphia Orchestra; international recognition and acclaim followed with the première of his first major opera, Shining Brow (1992). A steady stream of commissions from major orchestras, ensembles, and soloists over the past quarter century have cemented Hagen's reputation as one of America's most respected and sought-after composers.

Mr. Hagen is active also as a conductor, pianist, and stage director. He made his debut as a stage director with the Buffalo Philharmonic (2006), and has since staged three of his operas in major venues. He has released two discs as a collaborative pianist with baritone Paul Kreider on the Arsis label. The recording of his opera Bandanna under his baton (Albany Troy 849/50) was chosen by Fanfare Magazine as one of the ten notable releases of 2006 and chosen as an "ArkivMusic Recommendation". This season Naxos will release the complete recording of his opera Shining Brow (March) and his four piano trios (the Finisterra Trio; July).

A Lifetime Member of the Corporation of Yaddo, a member of the board of the Douglas Moore Fund for American Opera, and past president of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, he has received the Kennedy Center Friedheim, the Bearns, Barlow, and ASCAP-Nissim Prizes, two Rockefeller Bellagio Residencies, the Camargo Residency, multiple residencies at VCCA and MacDowell, as well as scholarships and development grants from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and Opera America. His music is published by Carl Fischer, EC Schirmer, and Burning Sled. Recordings are available on Albany, Arsis, Sierra, CRI, Klavier and Naxos.

Currently unaffiliated with a teaching institution, Mr. Hagen maintains a vigorous private teaching schedule and gives numerous master classes and residencies at colleges and music festivals. Artistic Director of the Seasons Festival in Yakima, Washington, Hagen will serve as composer-in-residence during the 2009 season for the Wintergreen and Methow music festivals, among others. Hagen is a frequent grants panelist and has served twice as Composer in Residence for the Princeton University Atelier; Composer in Residence at the Chicago Conservatory of Music of the Chicago College of the Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, as Franz Lehar Composer in Residence at the University of Pittsburgh; as Artist in Residence at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Sigma-Chi-William P. Huffman Composer in Residence at Miami University; Artist in Residence at Baylor University; on the musical studies faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music; nine years on the composition faculty of Bard College; as a Visiting Professor at the City College of New York; and as a Lecturer in Music at New York University.

Among the many organizations which have performed Hagen's works are: the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Symphony, National Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, the orchestras of Milwaukee, New Mexico, Vermont, Oakland, Long Beach, Sacramento, and Denver; the Buffalo and Brooklyn Philharmonics, and the Tanglewood and Aspen music festivals.

Current projects include an opera for the Seattle Opera; an opera for the Sarasota Opera; a fourth symphony (with chorus) for the Albany Symphony; and a violin concerto for Michael Ludwig. Recent projects include concerti for Gary Graffman, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Jeffrey Khaner, Sara Sant'Ambrogio, the Finisterra and Amelia Piano Trios, and works for Present Music, Wisconsin Brass Quintet, the Kings Singers, and the Amernet, Carpentier and Elements String Quartets.

Mr. Hagen attended the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, where his private teachers included Leonard Bernstein, David Diamond, Bernard Rands, Ned Rorem and Joseph Schwantner. A New Yorker since 1984, he lives with his wife, the composer Gilda Lyons, and his son Atticus.

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One of America’s most highly acclaimed concert organists and choral directors, Dr. Gerre Hancock (b. 1934) is Professor of Organ and Sacred Music at The University of Texas at Austin where he and his wife, Dr. Judith Hancock, co-direct the Organ Performance and Sacred Music Center programs. They teach organ and develop the curriculum for the study of sacred music. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Hancock held the position of Organist and Master of Choristers at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City where he set a new standard for church music in America for more than thirty years.

Dr. Hancock’s consummate skill is clearly apparent in his concert appearances. Possessing a masterly interpretive ability, he is an artist of taste, warmth, perception and style. Considered one of the finest organ improvisers in America, Dr. Hancock has been heard in recital in many cities throughout the United States, Europe, South Africa, and Japan. On occasion he performs in duo recitals with his wife.

Dr. Hancock has served on the faculty of The Juilliard School in New York City and taught improvisation on a visiting basis at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and The Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. In 1981 he was appointed a Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music (Wiltshire, England), and in 1995 Dr. Hancock was appointed a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (London, England). He has received honorary Doctor of Music degrees from the Nashotah House Seminary in Nashotah, Wisconsin, and The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. In May 2004 Dr. Hancock was awarded the Doctor of Divinity degree Honoris causa from The General Theological Seminary in New York City.

He is listed in Marquis Who’s Who in America and his biography appears in the second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. In 2004 he was honored in a ceremony at Lambeth Palace in London, England, where he was presented the Medal of the Cross of St. Augustine by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Compositions by Dr. Hancock are published by E. C. Schirmer Music Company and Oxford University Press. His compositions for organ and chorus are widely performed, and his textbook, Improvising: How to Master the Art (Oxford University Press, 1994), is used by musicians throughout the world. He has recorded for Gothic Records, Decca/Argo, Koch International and Priory Records, both as Conductor of the Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue Choir and as an organist.

Malcolm Hawkins (b. 1944) has written carols, church music, piano and chamber works, concertos and music for theater and radio. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Mr. Hawkins  has received commissions from many organizations, including the Vaughan Williams Trust, the Lichfield Festival, the Round Top Festival, the New Hampshire String Teachers and St. Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge. His Four Carols (Catalog No. 5498) have been broadcast by the BBC Singers and performed many times in England and in the United States.

Derek Healey

Derek Healey was born in Wargrave, England, in 1936 and studied with Herbert Howells at the Royal College of Music, London and with Boris Porena and Gofredo Petrassi in Italy.

He has won prizes in the UK, Italy and the USA and has taught Theory, Composition and Ethnic Music at the Universities of Victoria, Toronto, Guelph and Oregon, finally becoming Academic Professor of Music at the RAF School of Music in Uxbridge, England.

He has written works in most genres, having had some forty works published in the UK, Canada and the USA.

His earlier neo-classic style gave way to atonal and aleatoric influences in the 1960's, and from Healey's arrival in North America in 1969, ethnic music became increasingly important.

Works for large ensembles have been played by many orchestras and wind ensembles, and the opera Seabird Island was the first contemporary opera to be taken on a cross-Canada tour.

The works most often performed include the suite for orchestra: Arctic Images, and In Flanders' Fields and two sets of Canadian folk songs for choir.

Healey is now retired from teaching and spends his time with composition and research, living in the Cobble Hill district of Brooklyn, New York.
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Howard Helvey

Howard Helvey (b. 1968) resides in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he is active as a composer, arranger and pianist, and serves as organist/choirmaster of historic Calvary Episcopal Church. Nationally he is in frequent demand as a guest choral composer, conductor, and speaker. As a pianist, Mr. Helvey since 1997 has collaborated with distinguished artist Richard Steinbach in concerts and recordings of four-hand and two-piano literature. Performance highlights have included concerts in dozens of cities throughout the United States, Canada and England, and—by invitation—as duo artists at the 2000 national meeting of the Music Teachers National Association convention in Minneapolis.  Widening their exposure through television appearances in the United States and Canada, the Steinbach/Helvey duo has offered its performances to a broad and diverse community.  2001 saw the international release of their critically-acclaimed debut CD recording Piano Duo which included the brilliant and rarely-performed masterwork Eight Variations on an Original Theme in A-flat Major by Franz Schubert. The duo’s orchestral debut took place in April 2003 as they performed the Mozart Concerto in E-flat Major for Two Pianos at the University of Southern Mississippi. The Steinbach/Helvey duo is managed by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists. Mr. Helvey is also a founding member of the Hannaford Piano Trio.

Known particularly for his published and commissioned choral music, many of Mr. Helvey’s compositions have been featured on countless recordings, national network and PBS television broadcasts, in such eminent concert venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Walt Disney Concert Hall (LA), the Meyerson Symphony Center (Dallas), the White House, the National Cathedral (Washington, D.C.), and numerous locations throughout Europe and Asia.  In addition, his music has been performed at regional and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and other professional music organizations.  Drawn particularly to folk-based melodies and ancient hymn tunes, Mr. Helvey often incorporates them into his own writing.  His choral arrangements of folk-based material have been acclaimed as “engaging” (Choral Journal), “definitive” (Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians), “magical” (The Hymn) and—in response to his occasional inclusion of jazz elements—“fun and certain to be of interest” (The Diapason).  Having received commissions from numerous church, university, and professional choirs, Mr. Helvey’s 130+ published musical works have sold over a million copies worldwide. Besides his composer relationship since 1992 with Beckenhorst Press, Mr. Helvey’s music is published by Oxford University Press, Lawson-Gould, E.C. Schirmer, Hinshaw Music, Paraclete Press and Boosey & Hawkes, among other companies. He received awards in 2002, 2003 and 2006 (as first prize winner) from the John Ness Beck Foundation, who annually recognizes outstanding achievement in choral composition.

A Missouri native, Mr. Helvey holds a Bachelor of Music degree in composition from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Master of Music degree in composition and piano performance from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. Designated an undergraduate Chautauqua Scholar, he pursued additional studies in piano at New York’s Chautauqua Institution. Mr. Helvey has studied piano with Raymond Herbert, Jan Houser, Richard Morris and Dolores Gadevsky; and his composition teachers have included John Cheetham, Thomas McKenney, Darrell Handel and Frederick Bianchi. As one passionate about effective congregational hymn-singing, Mr. Helvey received additional training in hymn-accompanying and organ improvisation from Gerre Hancock.
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Stanley M. Hoffman was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1959. He has lived in the greater Boston area since 1977. He received degrees in Composition from Brandeis University (Ph.D. 1993), the New England Conservatory of Music (M.M. 1984), and the Boston Conservatory (B.M. Cum Laude 1981).

Dr. Hoffman’s accomplishments as a composer include winning a co-first place prize in the 2008–09 Longfellow Chorus International Composition Competition for his setting of the Longfellow poem Nature. He also won a third place prize in the 2008 Choral Composition Competition sponsored by The New York Virtuoso Singers for his unpublished piece Anim Zemiros for SATB chorus. In 2008, Dr. Hoffman also received a commission from Carolina Brass for Fanfare, Tango and Fughetta on Hebrew Themes. Grant Us Peace for SATB chorus received an “Honors” citation in 2002 in the Waging Peace Through Singing project sponsored by iwagepeace.com. The first song from his song cycle Selections From “The Song of Songs” for male voice and wind ensemble received a 1996 premiere performance from the Metropolitan Wind Symphony.

Dr. Hoffman received a 1995 commission from the ALEA III contemporary music ensemble for his composition Trio In One Movement for clarinet, viola and violoncello. His piece There Is a Name for SA chorus and amplified classical guitar was performed before an audience of over 8000 people at the dedication ceremonies of the New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston on October 22, 1995. Dr. Hoffman’s composition String Quartet (1987) was performed by the Boston Composers String Quartet at Jordan Hall in Boston on January 29, 1989. This piece was also performed by them in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York City on February 12, 1989. He received a 1984–85 Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) Award to Student Composers for his composition Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.

Dr. Hoffman also works as a conductor, lecturer, and vocalist. He has been Chief Editor at ECS Publishing in Boston since 1998.
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James Hopkins is Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. A native of Pasadena, California, he received a Bachelor of Music degree from U.S.C., a Master of Music from Yale, and a Ph.D. from Princeton. Prior to returning to teach at his alma mater in 1971, he served on the faculty at Northwestern University. He studied composition with Halsey Stevens, Quincy Porter and Edward T. Cone. Dr. Hopkins, an Associate of the American Guild of Organists, has also studied organ with Irene Robertson and Frank Bozyan. He retired as Organist at the First United Methodist Church, Pasadena, in 2003 after serving there for 24 years.

Dr. Hopkins's compositions include seven symphonies, four concertos - one each for two pianos, contrabass, organ, and piano and violin - and several other large-scale works for orchestra as well as many choral, solo instrumental, and chamber pieces. He has received major commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pasadena Chamber Orchestra, the University of Southern California and the Orange County Philharmonic Society as well as from numerous churches and educational institutions. His Concierto de Los Angeles, commissioned for the 2004 National Convention of the American Guild of Organists, was the first organ work heard in concert on the Walt Disney Concert Hall organ.

In 1989, his Fantasy on 'Cortège et Litanie' of Marcel Dupré won first prize in the international composition contest sponsored by the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Dr. Hopkins won the 1990 AGO/Möller Prize in Choral Composition for The Peace Which Passeth Understanding and a Fellowship from the California Arts Council for 1991. He was named winner of the AGO-ECS Award in Choral Composition in 1992 for his Welcome All Wonders. In 1995 he received USC’s Ramo Music Faculty Award for his ‘outstanding contribution to music and education.’ Dr. Hopkins was Composer-in-Residence for the Pacific Chorale, 1996-98.

Among ensembles and performers who have presented Dr. Hopkins' music are the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, National Symphony, Pacific Chorale and Pacific Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Portland Symphony, Washington Choral Society, American Repertory Singers, Chicago Brass Quintet, Denver Symphony, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada (Spain); organists Cherry Rhodes, David Higgs, Frederick Swann, and Diane Meredith Belcher; the Western Arts Trio, and the Fine Arts Quartet.
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Karel Husa

Karel Husa, Pulitzer Prize winner in Music, is an internationally known composer and conductor who was Kappa Alpha professor at Cornell University from 1954 until his retirement and also Lecturer in Composition at Ithaca College. An American citizen since 1959, Husa was born in Prague on August 7, 1921, studying at the Prague Conservatory and Academy of Music, and later at the National Conservatory and École Normale de Musique in Paris. Among his teachers were Arthur Honegger, Nadia Boulanger, Jaroslav Ridky, and conductor Andre Cluytens.

Husa was elected Associate Member of the Royal Belgian Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1974, and to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1994. In 1995, Husa was awarded the Czech Republic’s highest civilian recognition, the State Medal of Merit, First Class, and in 1998 the Medal of the City of Prague.

His String Quartet No. 3 earned him the 1969 Pulitzer Prize and, with over 7,000 performances, his Music for Prague 1968 has become part of the modern repertory. His works have been performed by major orchestras all over the world.

Karel Husa has conducted many major orchestras including those in Paris, London, Hamburg, Brussels, Prague, Stockholm, Oslo, Zurich, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, Boston, Washington, Cincinnati, Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, Louisville, and others. Every year he visits the campuses of music schools and universities to guest conduct and lecture on his music.

Gregory Hutter

Gregory Hutter holds degrees from Western Michigan University (BM), the University of Michigan (MM), and Northwestern University (DM).  He has been a faculty member at DePaul University since 2002, following a previous teaching appointment at Northwestern University.  

His compositions have been performed throughout North Amercia, Europe and the Middle East, with performances  by the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra (Czech Republic), the Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra (Ukraine), the Minnesota Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Society for New Music (Syracuse), Musica Moderna (Poland), the Cassatt Quartet, the Maia Quartet, the Musica Nova Consort (Tel Aviv), the Pinotage Ensemble, pianist Winston Choi, the Composers Ensemble of Northern New York, Duo Diorama, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and many other ensembles and individual performers.  Conductors including Arthur Weisberg, Robert Ian Winstin, Andreas Herm Baumgartner, Toshiyuki Shimada, and Mischa Santora have conducted his orchestra music. 

Hutter has been the recipient of the Renée B. Fisher Composer Award and Commission, a joint commission from the Michigan Music Teachers Association and the National Music Teachers Association, the William T. Faricy Award for Creative Music (Northwestern University), in addition to receiving awards from the Center for Creative Arts (Austin Peay State University), the Ladislav Kubik International Prize in Composition, the Chicago Union League Civic and Arts Foundation, the American Composers Forum/Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, SUNY Potsdam, the Society of Composers, Inc., and ASCAP.  

Hutter has been the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Meet the Composer Foundation, the American Music Center, the MacDowell Colony, the Illinois Arts Council and Northwestern University.  His compositions are published in print by E.C. Schirmer and appear on CD on the Capstone and ERM labels.  His debut solo CD will be released on the Naxos American Classics label in December 2007.  Hutter’s many distinguished teachers have included Ramon Zupko, C. Curtis-Smith, Michael Daugherty, William Bolcom, Evan Chambers, M. William Karlins, Alan Stout and Marta Ptaszynska.
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