Explore the music of Adolphus Hailstork every day this week at 1:00pm as we wrap up our celebration of Black composers in this final week of Black History Month.
Monday, February 26: Symphony no. 3 (2003)
Tuesday, February 27: Piano Concerto no. 1 (1992)
Wednesday, February 28:Symphony no.1 (1988)
Thursday, February 29: Sonata da Chiesa for String Orchestra (1992)
Friday, March1: Epitaph for a Man who Dreamed (1979) and 3 Spirituals for Orchestra (2005)
Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork III was born in 1941 in Rochester, New York. He was raised in Albany, where he studied violin, piano, organ and voice.
He grew up in the Episcopal Church, and the influence of singing and performing sacred music in the church would be a major musical influence on him early on.
Hailstork trained with some of the most notable composition pedagogues of the twentieth century. In 1963 he studied with Mark Fax at Howard University in Washington, and in that same year he would travel to France to study at The American Conservatory at Fontainbleau where he was a student of the renowned teacher Nadia Boulanger. After his studies in France he returned to the U.S. to study at the Manhattan School of Music where he was a student of David Diamond and Vittorio Giannini, earning a Bachelor of Music in 1965, and a Masters In Music in 1966 from the same institution. Eventually Hailstork would earn a PhD in Composition from Michigan State University studying under H. Owen Reed.
After his formal studies, Hailstork went on to teach at Youngstown University in Ohio, and serve as a composer-in-residence at Virginia’s Norfolk State University.
Hailstork, throughout his career has resisted the serialism and avant- garde movements that were so prevalent in the mid and late twentieth century. His music is instead, a marvelous blend of the African American, European, and sacred music that he heard growing up in the church. Other influences on his music are prominent events in current history, in particular events that have affected the African-American community.
At 82, Hailstork shows no signs of slowing down. He continues to accept commissions from all over North America, and is a champion of African-American inclusion on concert programs.
Tune in every day this week at 1:00 to hear just some of his spectacular music!