Hugh Hodgson

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Hugh Hodgson (born April 1, 1893 in Athens / Georgia ; † August 12, 1969 ) was an American music teacher , pianist , conductor and composer .

Life

Hodgson had his first piano lessons with his sister Mabel Hodgson Gamble , who had studied with Varette Stepanoff in Berlin , and won a competition of the Georgia High School Association at the age of fifteen . After graduating from high school in 1908, he also went to Berlin, where he studied piano with Varette Stepanoff and composition with Ralph Leopold . From 1910 to 1915 he studied at the University of Georgia . During this time he played the clarinet in a military band and gave recitals in his home region. He continued his musical training on two trips to Berlin. In 1915 he gave a recital in New York with Belle Gottschalk , a niece of Louis Moreau Gottschalk .

After graduating from the University of Georgia, he went to New York. There he studied mathematics at Columbia University , organ at the Giulmant Organ School with William C. Carl and composition with Rubin Goldmark . In 1925 he became musical director of the Lucy Cobb Institute in his hometown and organist at the Second Baptist Church in Atlanta . In 1928 he took over the position of organist and choirmaster at St. Luke's Episcopal Church , which he held until 1969.

The Chancellor of the University of Georgia, Charles Mercer Snelling , who planned to establish a faculty of fine arts and music, appointed Hodgson in 1928 as the first professor of music at that university. He has taught piano, music theory, history and criticism and has held weekly Music Apreciation Hours for 32 years at which musical works were performed, analyzed and discussed. From 1928 to 1942 he headed the University 's Man's Glee Club and from 1941 to 1950 the University Little Symphony Orchestra . In 1938 he founded a chamber music festival, which took place regularly until 1960. A university music festival initiated by him in 1951 made it possible for students to perform with larger ensembles.

On behalf of the Association of American Colleges , Hodgson organized concerts from 1940 to 1946 and gave master classes at colleges and universities in eighth states of the USA.A further series of concerts, which continued until 1958, he gave from 1940 for the University of Georgia and several other colleges of the State. At the Atlanta site of the university (now Georgia State University ), he helped found a music department in 1947.

As a pianist and conductor, Hodgson gave around 1200 concerts in his career. In 1943 he played the American premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich's piano quintet with the Roth Quartet in Chicago . His own compositional work includes choral and piano works, a piano trio, a piano concerto and ballet music. In 1960 he retired from teaching at the college, but continued to give private lessons and kept his position at St. Luke's Episcopal Church. In his hometown, Hodgson-Dodd Park was named after him and the painter Lamar Dodd .

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