Adolphus Hailstork

Biography

Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork III (born April 17, 1941) is an American composer and educator. He was born in Rochester, New York, and grew up in Albany, New York, where he studied violin, piano, organ, and voice. He currently resides in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Career

Hailstork began his musical career in 1963, when he studied composition with Mark Fax at Howard University, Washington, D.C. (BMus 1963). In the summer of 1963 he attended the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, France, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger. In 1965, Hailstork received a Bachelor of Music from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied under Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond, and in 1966 received a Master of Music at the same institution. After studying under H. Owen Reed, Hailstork received his PhD in composition from Michigan State University in 1971.
From 1969 to 1971, Hailstork taught at Michigan State University. He then served as professor at Youngstown State University in Ohio from 1971 to 1976, and in 1977 accepted a post as professor of music and Composer-in-Residence at Virginia's Norfolk State University. He also taught as professor of music and Composer-in-Residence at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.
Hailstork's works blend musical ideas from the African, American and European traditions as these form a part of his heritage.
In October 2022, he was featured as "Composer of the Week" on BBC Radio 3.
Hailstork married in 2007.

Awards and publications

1971: Ernest Bloch Award for choral composition
Mourn Not the Dead
1977: Belwin-Mills Max Winkler Award, presented by the Band Directors National Association
Out of Depths
1983: First Prize, Virginia College Band Directors
American Guernica
1987: Fulbright fellowship for study in Guyana
1992: named a Cultural Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia
1995: First Prize, University of Delaware Festival of Contemporary Music
Consort Piece
1999: Brock Commission from the American Choral Directors Association
2001: Doctor of Humane Letters honorary doctorate from the College of William & Mary
Hailstork is published by Theodore Presser Company and Carl Fischer Music. Old Dominion University holds several archival documents of Adolphus Hailstork in the special collections area of the F. Ludwig Diehn Composers Room, in the Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center.