Adolphus Hailstork (BM ’62, MM '66, HonDMA '19) delivers Manhattan School of Music's 2022 Commencement Address
Adolphus Hailstork received his doctorate in composition from Michigan State University, where he was a student of H. Owen Reed. He had previously studied at Manhattan School of Music, under Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond, at the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger, and at Howard University with Mark Fax.
Dr. Hailstork has written numerous works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, chamber ensembles, band, orchestra, and opera. Among his early compositions are Celebration, recorded by the Detroit Symphony in 1976, and two band works, Out of the Depths (1977) and American Guernica (1983), that 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. Significant performances by major orchestras (Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York) have been led by leading conductors such as James de Priest, Paul Freeman, Daniel Barenboim, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maezel, Jo Ann Falletta, and David Lockington. This March, Thomas Wilkins conducted Hailstork’s An American Port of Call with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Hailstork’s second symphony, commissioned by the Detroit Symphony, was inspired by a trip to Ghana, where he saw the dungeons where captive slaves had been held before being shipped overseas. He wrote, “I put my reaction to that sad scene in movement II of this symphony. In movement IV I sought to reflect the determination of people who had arrived in America as slaves, but struggled, with courage and faith, against numerous odds.” The symphony and his second opera, Joshua’s Boots, commissioned by the Opera Theatre of St. Louis and the Kansas City Lyric Opera, both premiered in 1999. Hailstork’s second and third symphonies were recorded by the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Lockington, and released by Naxos. Naxos also released An American Port of Call (Virginia Symphony Orchestra) in 2012.
Other commissions include an opera about the Underground Railroad, Rise for Freedom, premiered in 2007 by the Cincinnati Opera Company; Set Me on a Rock for chorus and orchestra, a response to Hurricane Katrina, commissioned by the Houston Choral Society (2008); and the choral ballet The Gift of the Magi for treble chorus and orchestra (2009). In 2011, Zora, We’re Calling You, for speaker and orchestra, was premiered by the Orlando Symphony. I Speak of Peace, commissioned by the Bismarck Symphony in honor of President John F. Kennedy and featuring his words, was premiered in 2013, conducted by Beverly Everett. Hailstork’s newest works include The World Called, based on Rita Dove’s poem Testimonial, for soprano, chorus, and orchestra, commissioned by the Oratorio Society of Virginia and premiered in May 2018, and Still Holding On (February 2019), commissioned and premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Dr. Hailstork is Professor of Music and Eminent Scholar at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.