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November 12, 2005
Hailstork concerto debuts
Virginia Symphony performs local artist's work
BY DAVID NICHOLSON
247-4794
Composers usually toil away out of sight, but Adolphus Hailstork has been especially visible this fall.
Last month, he conducted the world premiere of his cantata, "Crispus Attucks," honoring the African-American who was one of the first to die in the Boston Massacre of 1770. The cantata was commissioned to celebrate the reopening of the Crispus Attucks Theatre on Church Street in Norfolk.
Last Sunday, the Cultural Alliance of Greater Hampton Roads honored Hailstork with the Vianne B. Webb Award for Lifetime Achievement. The announcement caught Hailstork by surprise, and his acceptance remarks gave a clue to the significance of the recognition.
He told the audience that he used to sign his compositions with his name, followed by "Virginia Beach," the city he lived in. Then he changed the sign-off to "Norfolk" for the city he worked in, first at Norfolk State University and now at Old Dominion University. Eventually he settled on "Hampton Roads," a place he holds close to his heart since moving here more than 20 years ago.
Residents of Hampton Roads know him for his work as music director of the Unitarian Church of Norfolk and the compositions he was written for such groups as the Virginia Children's Chorus and the Virginia Chamber Players. But he's also an internationally recognized composer whose works have been performed by the Detroit, Chicago and Baltimore symphonies.
Tonight, those two worlds come together when the Virginia Symphony performs the Hampton Roads premiere of his Violin Concerto. The piece was co-commissioned by Williams College in Massachusetts with orchestras in Louisville, Ky., and Lancaster, Pa., and given its world premiere last November by the Berkshire Symphony in Massachusetts.
Hailstork's Virginia ties are evident in the creation of the concerto. The first movement was originally a duet for violin and piano that Hailstork labels a "wild fantasia." He composed it at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts in rural Amherst County.
"In a dash of energy, I wrote it on one of my visits there," says Hailstork. "I had never shown it to anybody and didn't know what I was going to do with it."
The thematic material of the second movement came from a complex choral work that Hailstork had written for his choir at the Unitarian church. A third, final movement is more playful and recalls themes from the first two sections.
The work was written for violinist Mark Peskanov, who will reprise his premiere performance with the orchestra here. "People who know Mark say I nailed it," says Hailstork in writing a concerto that mirrors the soloist's playing style. That pleases him.
Hailstork added some traditional African-American touches, such as a blues lick, so that "the piece takes on a rambunctious quality with a touch of whimsy." Over the years he's been referred to as an "African-American composer," a description he bristles at somewhat because he finds it limiting.
"I get kind of ticked by it, though I have to admit my own ambiguities," says Hailstork. "I work both sides of the highway in the degree that I use African-American material. I'm 64 years old, and people who know me will say it's not exclusively what I do. I'm more complex than that."
Hailstork admits that when the commissioning warrants it, such as the "Crispus Attucks" cantata, he doesn't shy away from incorporating African-American musical styles in his compositions. He's currently working on a new opera called "Freedom's River" about the Underground Railroad, which has been commissioned by the Cincinnati Opera.
Hailstork's position as Eminent Scholar at ODU allows him plenty of time to compose. He teaches a fall music course and has four composition students, but spends most of his time working on his many commissions.
"I tell people that I've got one of the top 10 composition jobs in the country," he says.
Copyright (c) 2005, Daily Press
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The Virginia Symphony Orchestra with a complement of 79 professional musicians under the direction of Grammy-nominated Music Director JoAnn Falletta performs 140 concerts annually, reaching 200,000 concert goers every season in venues throughout the region. Our education and outreach programs reach 53,000 students and adult learners every year. The Virginia Symphony Orchestra is the cultural cornerstone of the performing arts in Hampton Roads.
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