School of Music Remembers Distinguished Alumna Hilary Tann (1947-2023)
It is with sadness that the School of Music has learnt of the death of Hilary Tann at the age of 75.
A prolific composer and devoted advocate and teacher, her love of nature inspired her many compositions, whether written for performance in the United States (Adirondack Light for narrator and orchestra, for the Centennial of Adirondack State Park, 1992) or for her first home in Wales (the celebratory overture, With the heather and small birds, commissioned by the 1994 Cardiff Festival). A large orchestral piece, From afar, premiered in 1996 by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kirk Trevor, received its European premiere in 2000 by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and was selected for the opening concert of The International Festival of Women in Music Today with the KBS Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Apo Hsu in 2003. Shakkei, a diptych for oboe solo and chamber orchestra, was premiered by Virginia Shaw in the Presteigne Festival, August 2007, and was performed multiple times, including in Dublin, at the 2008 IAWM Congress in Beijing, in New York City, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, and at the 15th World Saxophone Congress in Bangkok (2009) with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra.
An advocate for women in her field, Tann was active in the International League of Women Composers, serving on its executive committee from 1982 to 1995. Numerous organisations supported her music, including the Welsh Arts Council, New York State Council on the Arts, Vaughan Williams Trust, Holst Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer/Arts Endowment Commissioning Music USA. Composer residencies included the 2011 Eastman Women in Music Festival, 2013 Women Composers Festival of Hartford, and 2015 Ty Cerdd, Music Center Wales.
Hilary Tann was born in Llwynypia, Glamorgan on 2 November 1947. She was a graduate of University College Cardiff’s music department (now Cardiff University School of Music) where she studied with Alun Hoddinott. She undertook postgraduate work with Jonathan Harvey in Southampton University, studying the music of Roberto Gerhard, and it was this work which initially took her to Princeton University in the United States. At Princeton she studied with J K Randall and Milton Babbitt, earning MFA and PhD degrees in composition.
Professor Tann joined Union College in upstate New York in 1980. In a 1986 profile of Tann in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Lawrence Biemiller wrote, “In an age when many take music for granted – half-ignoring Mozart in the car, Prokofiev in the kitchen – Hilary Tann sets her students an example that, in breadth and enthusiasm, makes a strong case for treating music with respect.” Her work was vital to the development of music at Union, where she taught courses in music theory and composition and was the founder of the Union College Orchestra. Her advocacy led to the building of the College’s Taylor Music Center, a 14,000 square-foot all-Steinway facility that includes a 120-seat recital hall, Emerson Auditorium. The project was completed in 2006. Upon her retirement in 2019, Union alumni established the Wilson-Tann scholarship in her honour.
A Musical Opinion review of her 2014 Presteigne Festival string quartet commission, And the Snow Did Lie, concluded:
“... its lyrical melodies, delicate textures and subtly variegated hues made an exquisite and lasting impression.”
Despite her long and successful career in the United States, Hilary Tann’s identification as a Welsh composer and her musical connection with Wales remained strong, maintained through various choral commissions including Psalm 104 (Praise, my soul) for the North American Welsh Choir (1998) and Paradise for Tenebrae (Gregynog Festival, 2008). The influence of the Welsh landscape is also evident in chamber works utilising text selections from Welsh poets George Herbert (Exultet Terra for double choir and double reed quintet), R. S. Thomas (Seven Poems of Stillness for cello and narrator) and Menna Elfyn (Songs of the Cotton Grass for soprano and oboe). In 2001, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes premiered The Grey Tide and the Green, commissioned for the Last Night of the Welsh Proms.
In 2016, Professor Tann visited Cardiff School of Music and gave an engaging seminar on her work and its dialogue with nature. As a notable and much-admired alumna of our school, she was an inspiring presence and friendly colleague who will be remembered fondly by Cardiff Music staff and students alike.
Image: Left to right, Dr Pedro Faria, Dr Robert Fokkens, Professor Hilary Tann, and Professor Arlene Sierra
Hilary Tann’s music is published by Oxford University Press and Rowanberry Music. Over sixty works are available on CD including three solo discs of vocal, chamber and orchestral music.
For more information about Hilary Tann and her music please visit: