Samuel Hazo
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Samuel Robert Hazo (b. 1966) is an American composer of primarily music for concert band.
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[edit] Career
In 2003, Hazo became the first composer to be awarded the winner of both composition contests sponsored by the National Band Association. He has composed for the professional, university and public school levels in addition to writing original scores for television, radio and the stage. His original symphonic compositions include performances with actors Brooke Shields, James Earl Jones, David Conrad and Richard Kiley. He has also written symphonic arrangements for three-time Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams. Hazo’s compositions have been performed and recorded world-wide, including performances by the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra (national tour), the Birmingham Symphonic Winds(UK), the W.F. West Symphonic Band (Wa. USA), and the Klavier Wind Project’s recordings with Eugene Migliaro Corporon. Additionally, his music is included in the series "Teaching Music Through Performance in Band." Hazo's works have been premiered and performed at the Music Educators National Conference, Midwest Clinic for Band and Orchestra, World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles Convention, Bands of America National Honor Band, National Band Association/TBA Convention, College Band Directors National Association Convention and also aired in full-length programs on National Public Radio. He has served as composer-in-residence at Craig Kirchhoff’s University of Minnesota Conducting Symposium and has also lectured on music and music education at universities and high schools internationally. In 2004, Hazo's compositions were listed in a published national survey of the "Top Twenty Compositions of All Time" for wind band. Also in 2004, the Harrison High School Marching Band from Kennesaw, GA used his piece "Ride" in their show "Matters of the Heart" and won the Bands of America Regional Championship in Massillon, OH.
Hazo has been a music teacher at every educational grade level from kindergarten through college, including tenure as a high school and university director. Hazo was twice named “Teacher of Distinction” by the southwestern Pennsylvania Teachers’ Excellence Foundation. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Duquesne University where he served on the Board of Governors and was awarded as Duquesne’s Outstanding Graduate in Music Education. Hazo serves as a guest conductor and is a clinician for Hal Leonard Corporation. He is also sponsored by Sibelius Music Software. Recordings of his compositions appear on Klavier Records and Mark Records.
He has been commissioned to write a memorial piece for the recent Virginia Tech shooting .
He resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his wife and children.
[edit] Personal politics
A fierce opponent of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, Hazo gave a speech at the Community College of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh on April 16, 2008, listing the characteristics historically shared by fascist regimes, and indicating the ways U.S. society has tended in that direction under Bush.[1]
[edit] Partial list of composed works
- Perthshire Majesty— winner of the 2003 NBA William D. Rivelli Memorial Composition Contest
- Sevens
- Ride
- Fantasy on a Japanese Folk Song
- Diamond Fanfare
- Novo Lenio
- In Heaven's Air
- Olympiada
- Exultate
- Rush
- Sky is Waiting
- Ascend
- Today is the Gift
- Three Minnesota Portraits: (Commissioned by the Edina High School Concert Band) Movement One: Shrouds of Snow
- Movement Two: Rest
- Movement Three: Across the Halfpipe
- Echoes
- Chorus Angelorum (Commissioned by Hereford High School in memory of Joey and Audrey Baseman)
- Southern Hymn (Commissioned by Providence High School Wind Ensemble, Charlotte, NC in memory of Neil Rasmussen)
- Bridges (Commissioned by Virginia Tech in memory of the victims of the Virginia Tech Massacre in 2007)
- Their Blossoms Down
- Voices of the Sky
- Solas Ane (Yesterday's Joy)
- Arabesque (Commissioned by the Indiana Bandmasters' Association for the 2008 All-State Honor Band)
- "Psalm 42"
- Our Yesterdays Lengthen Like Shadows (Commissioned by the South Carolina Band Director's Association for the 2008 All-State Honor Band)
- The Quest
