Sorrel Hays

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Sorrel Hays (born August 6, 1941 in Memphis , Tennessee , † February 9, 2020 in New York ) was an American composer , musician and pianist .

life and work

Doris Ernestine Hays was born in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1984 she made "Sorrel" (after the family name "Sorrels" of her maternal grandmother) her nickname. She studied music with Harold Cadek at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and graduated in 1963. With a scholarship from the Maclellan Foundation and the support of Musica femina münchen , she then studied for three years with Friedrich Wührer and Hedwig Bilgram at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Munich . She completed her studies with Paul Badura-Skoda and Rudolf Kolisch at the University of Wisconsin in Madison with a master's degree and subsequently taught at Cornell College in Iowa . She moved to New York City and took lessons from the pianist Hilde Somer . Hays has taught at universities in the USA, in Copenhagen and Istanbul. Sorrel Hays is known for cluster piano music, electroacoustic music and film music .

She was a participant in the Como Festival, pro musica nova in Bremen and in 1987 documenta 8 in Kassel with the work Celebration of No , about which she wrote in the exhibition catalog:

"" Celebration of No ": a composition of 21 female voices that pronounce the word" No "/" No "or something comparable like" I don't want "in 21 languages. In between the warning screams of birds. I found in women 'no' an unshakable strength, sometimes gentle, even speaking in a weak voice, but persevering in asserting their rights; our right to deny others their destructive power. "

When the 17-minute long work was released as a tape collage on their Voicings record on Folkways Records in May 1983 , Hays had announced its creation:

“Concert tour, Bavaria, November 24, 1980 - At breakfast with friends, I mention the power of the word No, the intensity of the symbol and the sublingual feeling of the sound. Is NO / NO an original word?
On the way, Cologne, November 15, 1981 - I see the film Die Bleierne Zeit by Margarethe von Trotta. I am deeply touched by her portrait of two politically active sisters of my generation who grew up in post-war Germany. Both sisters say NO to exploitation, to violent mind control by the rulers, to rampant state violence. I decide to develop a composition from the word and the feeling NO.
Chattanooga / New York, winter 1981 - First tape recordings with friends who say NO. [...] "

Awards (selection)

  • Hays was awarded the 1971 Gaudeamus International Interpreters Award awarded
  • Other awards: American Music Center ,
  • Cary Trust
  • National Endowment for the Arts
  • New York Council on the Arts
  • Astraea Foundation
  • Open Meadows
  • Meet the composer
  • Eastman Foundation
  • Tennessee Foundation for the Humanities .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Emma Hear with Your Heart , accessed February 13, 2020
  2. ↑ http://sorrelhays.net/about.html (English)
  3. ↑ Sorrel Hays accessed on April 3, 2015 (English)
  4. ↑ documenta 8 catalog: Volume 1: Essays; Volume 2: Catalog page 332; Volume 3: artist book; Kassel 1987, ISBN 3-925272-13-5 p. 332 books.google , books.google
  5. ↑ Doris Hays: Celebration of No: The woman in my music . In: Neuland - Approaches to Contemporary Music Volume 4 (1983/84), edited by Herbert Henck , Gisela Gronemeyer and Deborah Richards. Bergisch Gladbach April 1984. pp. 261-267; also in Emma (magazine) 1983 p. 58 books.google
  6. ↑ zoominfo -Hays / 452376416 Doris Hays accessed on April 3, 2015 (English)
personal data
SURNAME Hays, Sorrel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hays, Sorrel Doris Ernestine; Hays, Doris
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American composer, musician and pianist
DATE OF BIRTH August 6, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Memphis , Tennessee
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 2020
Place of death new York