ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK received his doctorate in composition from Michigan State University, where he was a student of H. Owen Reed. He completed earlier studies at the Manhattan School of Music under Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond, the American Institute at Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger, and Howard University with Mark Fax.

Dr. Hailstork has created works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, various chamber ensembles, band, and orchestra. Early compositions include Celebration, recorded by the Detroit Symphony in 1976; and two works for band (Out of the Depths, 1977, and American Guernica, 1983), both of which won national
competitions. Consort Piece (1995), commissioned by the Norfolk Chamber Ensemble, was awarded first prize by the University of Delaware Festival of Contemporary Music.

Dr. Hailstork’s music has been performed by such prestigious ensembles as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic, under the batons of leading conductors such as James DePreist, Daniel Barenboim, Kurt Masur, and Lorin Maazel.

Recent commissions include: Earthrise, a large-scale choral work premiered by James Conlon and the Cincinnati May Festival; Three Studies on Chant Melodies for the American Guild of Organists’ National Convention; Whitman’s Journey, a cantata for chorus and orchestra premiered by the Master Chorale of Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center; Rise for Freedom, an opera about the Underground Railroad, for the Cincinnati Opera Company; Serenade for chorus and orchestra, commissioned by Michigan
State University; and Set Me on a Rock, for chorus and orchestra, commissioned by the Houston Choral Society. Hailstork’s second and third symphonies are recorded by the Grand Rapids Symphony
Orchestra, under David Lockington, on the Naxos label.

Dr. Hailstork, who has received honorary doctorates from Michigan State University and the College of William and Mary, resides in Virginia Beach, VA; he serves as Professor of Music and Eminent Scholar at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.

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