Sigma Alpha Iota Member Laureate

 You are invited to visit the composer's website for more information.

Biography

Katherine Hoover was born in West Virginia and resides in New York, where she maintains an active career as composer, conductor, and flutist. She is the recipient of a 1979 National Endowment Composer's Fellowship and many other awards, including an 1994 Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award in Composition. Four of her pieces have won the National Flute Association's Newly Published Music Competition, in 1987, 1991, 1993 and 1994. She has also received a grant from the Alice M. Ditson Fund, and numerous grants from Meet the Composer. In March, 1996 she was Composer-in-Residence at the fourth Festival of Women Composers at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She has appeared at many universities and colleges, including the U. of Wisconsin at Madison, Haverford College, U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and U. of California at Berkeley and at Davis. She has been commissioned by the New Jersey Chamber Music Society, the Women's Philharmonic, the Episcopal Diocese of New York, the Huntingdon Trio, and Duologue, among many others. Her works are published byTheodore Presser, Carl Fischer, and Papagena Press. CD's of her music have been issued on Koch International Classics, Delos, Cantilena Bayer, Boston and Leonarda.

Ms. Hoover's works have been performed by many orchestras. Her tone poem Eleni: A Greek Tragedy, premiered by the Harrisburg Symphony under Larry Newland in 1987, has been performed by eleven other orchestras. including the Fort Worth Symphony, under conductor John Giordano. Her Clarinet Concerto, written for the jazz virtuoso Eddie Daniels, was premiered by Mr. Daniels with the Santa Fe Symphony. In January, 1994, Ms. Hoover conducted the premiere of her Night Skies, a 25-minute work for large orchestra, with the Harrisburg Symphony.

The Dorian, Sylvan and Richards Quintets, the Atlanta Chamber Players, the Colorado and Montclaire Quartets, the Amherst Saxophone Quartet and the Huntingdon and Verdehr Trios are among the many chamber groups which have featured her work. In May, 1989, the New Jersey Chamber Music Society premiered her Quintet (Da Pacem) for piano and strings at Alice Tully Hall in New York's Lincoln Center. Julius Baker, Eugenia Zukerman, Sharon Robinson, Carol Wincenc, and Metropolitan Opera bass John Cheek have also presented her pieces.

Ms. Hoover attended the Eastman School of Music, receiving her Bachelor of Music in Music Theory and a Performer's Certificate in Flute in 1959. Her main flute study was with Joseph Mariano, and later with William Kincaid in Philadelphia. While a faculty member at the Manhattan School, she completed a Masters in Music Theory at that institution Ms. Hoover has also attended the Conductors Institute in South Carolina. As player, theorist, teacher, and conductor Ms. Hoover has studied hundreds of scores; these scores were her primary composition Instruction.

As a flutist Ms. Hoover has given concerto performances at Lincoln Center and performed with leading ballet and opera companies in all of New York's major halls. She has played numerous recitals, both live and on radio and television, and recorded 5010 and chamber repertoire for Arabesque, Leonarda, CRI, Grenadilla, and Opus One.

Ms. Hoover has become active as a conductor in the last few years, leading performances of her own work and that of others in Wisconsin, West Virginia, and New York, and Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1995 she traveled to Brataslava for the recording of her Night Skies and Eleni: A Greek Tragedy, returning for the premiere of her new Dances and Variations at Kennedy Center. The commissioning, rehearsing, and premiere of this piece are the subject of a prize winning documentary, called New Music, by Deborah Novak.

Classical Pulse, Jan. 1997: Critic Leslie Gerber picked Hoover's Da Pacem as one of the five best recordings of 1996..

Feb. 2008: Lyric Trio performed by the Meininger-Trio (NCA Records) in 2003.

Recordings

• Quintet: da Pacem: Piano & String Quartet; performed by Leslie Petteys and the Montclaire Quartet; Koch International Classics #3-7147-2, "Da Pacem"
• Sound Bytes: Two Flutes; performed by Claudia Anderson and Karen Yonovitz; on Centaur CD #CRC2203, "American Flute" (Dist. by Harmonia Mundi)
• Kokopeli; Reflections: Flute, performed by Eugenia Zukerman on Delos Records; "Incantations"
• Kokopeli: Flute; performed by Laurel Zucker on Cantilena Records #660042 'Song of the Wind" (Dist. by Bayside 1-800-888-8574)
• Kokopeli: Flute; performed by Leone Buyse on Boston Records #101 1CD "Contrasts"
• Kokopeli: Flute, performed by Angela Koregelos on Keynote Designs; CD 102 "Red, White, and Blue"
• Kokopeli: Flute, Theresa Beaman on Laurel Records (will supply details)
• Lyric Trio: Flute, Cello, Piano; performed by the Huntingdon Trio; on Leonarda CD LE-325 or Cassette LE-325CS, Collage ( call 212-666-7697)
• Images: Clarinet, Violin, Piano; performed by the Verdehr Trio; on Leonarda CD LE-326 "The Verdehr Trio"
• Medieval Suite (Flute & Piano) and Reflections (Flute); performed by Hoover & Brown; Leonarda Cassette LPI 221 "Flute Reflections"
• Sinfonia: 4 Bassoons, performed by the New York Bassoon Quartet; Leonarda Cassette LE-302CS
• Selima: (Soprano, Clarinet, & Piano) performed by Ariel (J. Lovett, J. Bunke, M. Fardink) on Spectrum SC-425

Contact Information

160 West 95th St. #5B
New York, NY 10025

Annual Updates

2009

Two for Two, for alto flute and piano, was the composer’s fifth prize-winning piece in the National Flute Association’s Newly Published Music Contest.

PREMIERES

Pianist Dianne Frazer introduced Dream Dances, July 15, 2008, Festival of the Hamptons in East Hampton, NY; at the same concert, Frazer joined the composer in two movements of Medieval Suite, and the composer performed Kokopeli.

PERFORMANCES

Pianist Michael Mizrahi performed Preludes May 17, 2008, Southampton (NY) Cultural Center. Homage to Bartok was presented by The Quintsylvania Winds, May 31, Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, New York, NY. El Andalus was performed June 14 by cellist Sharon Robinson and pianist Joseph Kalichstein for the Hudson Valley Chamber Music Society, Bard College, Rhinebeck, NY. Flutist Christine Potter played Two for Two for alto flute and piano at both the American Flute Convention, August 10, and the British Flute Convention, August 24. Lois Herbine, Lloyd Smith, and Charles Abramovic presented Lyric Trio, September 26, Concerts at Carmel, Glenside, PA.

RECORDINGS

Lisa McGrath’s recording The Colors Fall includes Winter Spirits, Sound Bytes, and Masks. Cristina Ledford’s recording Mosaics includes the premiere recording of Three Sketches for piccolo and piano.

PUBLICATIONS

Two for Two, alto flute and piano; Concertante Dragon Court, multiple flutes; Dream Dances for piano; all by Papagena Press, distributed by Presser.
 

2008

Katherine Hoover was a guest at the University of Arkansas, giving masterclasses and attending a concert of her work on April 21, 2007.  In August, the National Flute Association hosted a concert in her honor with several well-known flutists performing her work. The Italian flutist Giusy Maria Malito gave a concert in Modena, Italy, featuring several of Hoover’s pieces. The Austin Lyric Opera presented a Veterans’ Day concert, featuring Hoover’s piano quintet Da Pacem, with pianist-composer Kathryn Mishell with a string quartet, in Austin, TX.  Suk Hee presented Hoover’s Preludes for piano as part of a Doctoral Recital at the City University of New York Graduate Center on November 15. Christine Potter performed Two for Two at the December 16 New York Flute Club recital. Hoover will be the guest for Drew University’s Flute Day on March 30, 2008, in Madison, NJ.

2007

Premieres

The Colorado Quartet introduced String Quartet II in concert at Rockford (IL) College. Other venues included De Pauw University, Greencastle, IN; Cutting Edge Concerts, Greenwich House, NY; Bard College, NY; Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL; and Soundfest, Church of the Messiah, Woods Hole, MA. Alexa Still presented the solo flute piece To Greet the Sun on April 8, during a Flute Day solo recital in Columbus, OH. Two for Two, for alto/bass flute and piano, was premiered by flutist Christine Potter at the University of Utah-Salt Lake City. Incantations for SSAA chorus, flute and percussion, in a revised version with two new movements, was heard October 31st in a concert by the New York Treble Singers under the direction of V. Davidson, at St. Peter’s Church, New York, NY.

Performances

K. McClure and J. Day presented Canyon Echoes, for flute and guitar, on March 16, 2006, for the Westminster Conservatory Series, Nassau Presbyterian Church, Princeton, NJ. Dream was performed May 6 by 3 + 3, Elaine Held Azijn, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Holland. On May 14, Caprice was heard in a Red Cedar Chamber Music Concert, in MacNider Art Museum, Mason City, IA. Several pieces were heard at the National Flute Convention August 10-13: Kokopeli, To Greet the Sun, Three for Eight, Seven Haiku, and Three Sketches. Trio, for violin, cello, and piano, was presented October 29 by the Pone Ensemble, Methodist Church, New Paltz, NY