Lee Hoiby Composer-in-Residence at Austin Peay University

Hoiby Residency to Feature World Premiere of New Band Work, American Parade

Lee Hoiby will be composer-in-residence at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN from March 19 through March 30, 2007. The world premiere of the composer’s American Parade for band takes place on March 23, 2007 in a concert by the university wind ensemble. In addition to the band program, a concert devoted entirely to the composer’s music will feature several songs including Insomnia (Elizabeth Bishop), Lady of the Harbor (Emma Lazarus), Wild Nights (Emily Dickinson), and An Immorality (Ezra Pound) as well as the Sonata for Violin and Piano. Hoiby will lead a master class for singers in the vocal program and will also work with composition students and with the university wind ensemble during his residency.

An endowed chair at Austin Peay University supports a series of short residencies for distinguished composers, artists and ensembles during the academic year. The male vocal ensemble Cantus was in residency earlier this season and performed Hoiby’s recent work Private First Class Jesse Givens at the University. Private First Class Jesse Givens sets the text of a last letter home by US Army tank crewman, Jesse Givens, who had been in Iraq for just a month when, on May 1, 2003, his tank crashed and fell into a canal off the Euphrates River. The rest of the crew escaped through a hatch, but Givens was trapped inside and drowned. Hoiby's intention was to set Givens’ words as clearly as possible writing it in three-part form for tenors and two baritone parts. The piece has been performed repeatedly since its premiere last year and, because of the demand, is now available in versions for solo baritone and piano as well as for string quartet and string orchestra.

In other Hoiby news, a world premiere consortium of companies is now coming together for Lee Hoiby's new opera Romeo and Juliet. A vocal score and recording of "The Balcony Scene" are available for review. Please contact Norman Ryan at Schott New York for details.

Lee Hoiby
American Parade (Version for Band, 2007): 3fl+pic.ob+ca.2cl+Ebcl.+bcl.2bsn.asx.tsx.bsx/3tp.4hn.tbn.tb.eph/timp/2perc/cel
Duration: 5'

Lee Hoiby
Private First Class Jesse Givens (2006)
for men’s chorus (TBB) a cappella
Also available in versions for baritone solo and piano, string quartet, and string orchestra
Duration: 6’

For more information about Lee Hoiby please click here.