DOUGLAS HILL
Douglas Hill has been Professor of Music-Horn at the University-Madison since 1974. He was named Emily Mead Baldwin Bell-Bascom Professor of the Creative Arts in 1999, acknowledged as one of only 20 international horn players in Michael Meckna’s book: 20th Century Brass Soloists, and has served as a council member and as President of the International Horn Society. Hill is presently a member of the Wisconsin Brass Quintet and serves as principal horn for the Madison Symphony Orchestra. He has produced three solo recordings, numerous chamber recordings and has recorded with the St. Louis Symphony, and the Contemporary Chamber Ensembles of New York and Chicago.
Douglas Hill has received numerous composition grants and commissions including the Wisconsin Arts Council Artists Fellowship, 12 grants through the U.W. Graduate School Grant-in -Aid Program, the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, Oakwood Chamber Players, Artemis Horn Quartet, and the Vilas Foundation. His many compositions range from works for solo horn, through horn nonets, mixed chamber ensembles, full chorus, voice and horn with string orchestra to a chamber orchestra with full Native American Drum and singers. A double CD featuring 145 minutes of Hill’s original compositions (“Thoughtful Wanderings” Musicians Showcase Recordings, MS1060), was released in the Spring of 2001 and features alumni, faculty, staff, and students of the U.W. School of Music.
As an internationally noted teacher of horn, Hill has been invited as a performer, clinician and coach to 15 International Horn Symposia, International Brass Workshops, and as an invited solo artist to Canada, Europe and East Asia. He has produced the educational video: Hill on Horn, and authored three educational texts: Introducing the French Horn, Extended Techniques for the Horn, and Collected Thoughts on Teaching and Learning, Creativity and Horn Performance. He is author of over 30 articles and has served as review editor for Brass World and The Horn Call, Journal of the International Horn Society. His greatest energy and focus, however, has been his devotion to and pride in the many horn graduates from the U.W. who are now performing and teaching throughout many countries of the world.