Daron Hagen's (born 1961, Milwaukee, Wisconsin) compositions have been steadily commissioned and performed internationally by world-class orchestras, opera companies, chamber ensembles and soloists since his debut as a composer (Philadelphia Orchestra, 1983) and as a pianist (Denver Chamber Orchestra, 1986). The New York Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, pianist Gary Graffman, the Kings Singers, Sara Sant'Ambrogio, Sören Hermansson, and flautist Jeffrey Khaner are among those who have commissioned and premiered his music.

Hagen's commissions from major orchestras and performers between 1981 and 2005 include numerous orchestral works — three symphonies, seven concertos, several massive works for chorus and orchestra, two dozen choral works, ballet scores, concert overtures, and showpieces — as well as two brass quintets, two piano trios, a string quartet, an oboe quintet, a duo for violin and cello, solo works for piano, organ, violin, viola, and cello, and seventeen published cycles of art songs on poetry of over fifty poets.

His music is recorded on the Albany, Arsis, CRI, and Klavier labels, among others. The composer of seven operas, Shining Brow (1992), Vera of Las Vegas (1996), Bandanna (1998), Broken Pieces (2003) and The Antient Concert (2005), Hagen is currently collaborating on Amelia with Gardner McFall and Stephen Wadsworth for the Seattle Opera.

Major awards and fellowships include a 2006 National Endowment for the Arts production grant (for a revival of Shining Brow), a 2006 Opera America development grant (for Amelia) two Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio residencies in Italy, the Camargo residency in France, the Kennedy Center Friedheim Prize for Orchestral Music, the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Bearns Prize of Columbia University, the ASCAP Nissim Prize for Orchestral Music, and the Barlow Foundation International Chamber Music Composition Prize and Barlow Endowment commission, as well as multiple prizes and grants from ASCAP, BMI, Opera America, and various foundations.

In 2004 Hagen was elected President of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation in New York City, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging the performance and creation of art song. A passionate educator, ambassador of the arts, and advocate of young composers, he has served twice as Composer in Residence for the Princeton University Atelier (1998, 2005); as Artist in Residence at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2000-2002); Sigma-Chi-William P. Huffman Composer in Residence at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio (1999-2000); Artist in Residence at Baylor University, Waco, Texas (1998-1999); on the musical studies faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music (1996-1998); as an Associate Professor at Bard College (1988-1997); as a Visiting Professor at the City College of New York (1997, 1993-1994); and as a Lecturer in Music at New York University (1988-1990). He has been a Member of the Corporation of Yaddo, where he has composed many of his pieces, since the 1980's. Founding Director of the Perpetuum Mobile Concerts on which new works by over fifty young American composers were premiered, he is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and of the Juilliard School. Hagen's principal mentors were Leonard Bernstein, David Diamond, and Ned Rorem.

Hagen has lived in New York City since 1984.
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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 receiving an “Honors” citation in 2002 in the Waging Peace Through Singing project sponsored by iwagepeace.com for Grant Us Peace for SATB chorus. The first song from his composition 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 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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