Henry Kimball Hadley

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Henry Kimball Hadley (December 20, 1871 – September 6, 1937) was an American composer and conductor. Born in Somerville, Massachusetts, he first studied music with his father, who was a secondary school music teacher, and later with the composer George Whitefield Chadwick. In 1894 he travelled to Vienna to further his studies with Eusebius Mandyczewski.

In an age when Americans preferred European conductors to home grown ones, Hadley felt that he needed to establish himself in Europe. So, after some years as teacher, Hadley returned to Europe in 1904 to tour, compose, and study with Ludwig Thuille in Munich. Thuille introduced him to the music of Wagner, Strauss, and Mahler, which had a considerable impact on Hadley's compositional style. Before long his conducting ability and his compositions, including his second symphony and symphonic poem Salome started to win admirers. In 1907, he obtained a position as an assistant conductor at the opera house in Mainz, Germany, and was soon invited to conduct the premiere of his third symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In April 1909 his first opera, Safié, premiered in Mainz under the composer's baton.

Later that year he was appointed conductor of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and was asked to become the first conductor of the San Francisco Symphony two years later, where he served until 1915, when he was replaced by a European conductor. Unable to find a permanent conducting position, Hadley returned east and continued to compose, while maintaining a busy schedule as a guest conductor. He married concert singer Inez Barbour in 1918.

Between 1917 and 1920 three of Hadley's operas received high profile premieres, including Cleopatra's Night which bowed at the Metropolitan Opera on January 31, 1920. Hadley conducted some of the performances, becoming the first American composer to conduct his own opera at the Met, and the opera was revived the following season. Several critics judged it the best among the ten American operas to appear at the Met to that point.

Hadley was named associate conductor of the New York Philharmonic in 1921, and he remained in that post until 1927, when he resigned, perhaps due to frustration at being repeatedly passed over for the top spot in favor of European conductors. In 1929 Hadley formed the Manhattan Symphony, which he conducted for three years, including an American work in each concert. He then stepped down to devote more time to composition.

In 1932 Hadley was diagnosed with cancer. Surgery was initially successful, and Hadley continued his career, including conducting tours of Japan and South America. However, Hadley's popularity as a composer began to wane, as popular and especially critical opinion turned against the robust romanticism which Hadley's music embodied. Hadley's cancer recurred, and he died in 1937.

Hadley was a very prolific composer, who worked in almost every musical form, including five symphonies, five operas, numerous cantatas and oratorios, symphonic poems, ballet music, chamber music, and countless songs with both piano and orchestral accompaniment. He also wrote the first synchronized score for a motion picture, the silent film When a Man Loves in 1926. During his lifetime, Hadley's music was immensely popular, and was a regular part of the repertory of America's top orchestras, and was also performed in Europe. Many legendary conductors performed his music, including Gustav Mahler, Leopold Stokowski, Serge Koussevitzky, and Karl Muck. But recently his music has been largely neglected, although a few recordings of his music have been issued.