John S. Hilliard

John Stanley Hilliard (b. Hot Springs, Arkansas, October 29 1947) is an American composer.

Hilliard's music has had performances in Austria, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands, South America, the United Kingdom and the United States including performances at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Merkin Concert Hall and at numerous new music festivals. His orchestral works have been performed by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Richmond Symphony Orchestra. His piano concerto No. 1, "Okeanos", was premiered in 2000 by pianist Eric Ruple with the James Madison University Wind Symphony at the College Band Directors National Association Conference. Hilliard's second piano concerto was commissioned by the Staunton Music Festival (Virginia) and had its premiere there at the Blackfriars Playhouse in 2004, with the composer conducting. In 2006, the James Madison University Wind Symphony premiered his "Variations on a Theme from 'L'oiseau de feu'".

Hilliard has composed four symphonies; three piano concerti; a trumpet concerto; sonatas for piano, violin, and cello; works for wind ensemble; and various other chamber works, including two song cycles.

In 1973, during his years working at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Hilliard was encouraged by Thor Johnson, then conductor of the Nashville Symphony, by his requesting him to compose a work for the IAA Orchestra. This was Hilliard's "The Grand Traverse: Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra", which was premiered by the orchestra in 1975 with Byron Hanson conducting.

In 1981 Hilliard was awarded a summer residency position and commission from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He has won annual ASCAP Awards, a commission from the International Horn Society and the first-place award in the Virginia Music Teachers Association's commissioned composer contest for 1992.

President Bill Clinton requested Hilliard to compose a fanfare for his first inauguration in 1993.

Asian music has had a profound influence upon his composing. Hilliard studied and played in Cornell University's Javanese gamelan under the leadership of Jennifer Lindsay. In 1995, Hilliard was given a six-month Artistic Fellow residency grant by Japan Foundation in Tokyo, studying shakuhachi and gagaku in Nara at the Kasuga Shrine. In 1996 he studied Indian and Balinese music in California.

Hilliard has served on the music faculty at the Interlochen Arts Academy-National Music Camp, Cornell University, and Washington State University. He is currently Professor of Music and Resident Composer at the School of Music of James Madison University. Among Hilliard's teachers include Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Karel Husa, Donald Erb, W. Francis McBeth, Robert M. Palmer, George B. Wilson, William Grant Still and Ned Rorem. In addition, he has attended masterclasses with Erza Laderman, Alan Hovhaness, Włodzimierz Kotoński, George Crumb, Milton Babbitt, Ben Johnston, and Olivier Messiaen. He earned a doctorate in Music Composition from Cornell University at Ithaca, New York in 1983. Hilliard was granted a Senior Fulbright Award to teach and compose in Hong Kong in 1998-99. Numbered among his students is Joel McNeely, a noted film composer for Disney studios and George Lucas.

The Augsburg Mozartfest commissioned Hilliard to complete one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's unfinished manuscripts, one for "violoncello" and "cembalo" that had been started in 1782, the year Mozart married. [ [http://mozartcellomusic.com/ "Mozart's Only Work for Cello and Piano Finally Completed By composer John Hilliard, Resident Composer at James Madison University". NPR: "With Good Reason". Interview with Sara McConnell. July, 2004] ] Hilliard completed the manuscript fragment in the style of Mozart and added his own set of variations from the fragments. This set premiered May, 2004, in Augsburg, Germany.

On January 31, 2007 a concert of Hilliard's music was presented at the Kennedy Center, which included the Washington, D.C. premiere of his second piano concerto performed by guest pianist Carsten Schmidt of Sarah Lawrence College.

References

* [http://www.sigmaalphaiota.org/home/ComposersBureau/HilliardJohn/tabid/330/Default.aspx]
* [http://www.jmu.edu/jmuweb/general/news/general8033.shtml James Madison University. Press release, January 23, 2007. "Resident Composer Hilliard's Music at Kennedy Center Jan. 31"]