Katherine Hoover facts for kids

Katherine Hoover (born December 2, 1937 – died September 21, 2018) was an American musician. She was a talented composer, meaning she wrote music. She was also a flutist, which means she played the flute. Katherine studied music at the Eastman School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. She taught music at the Manhattan School of Music for 15 years. She also taught flute at the Juilliard Preparatory School. Katherine won many awards for the music she wrote. People said her music was "fresh and individual" and "dazzlingly crafted."

Katherine Hoover's Early Life

Katherine Hoover was born in Elkins, West Virginia. She grew up in a family that was not very musical. Her mother was a painter and her father was a scientist. They did not want her to become a musician. But music was the most important thing in Katherine's life. She remembered being able to read music when she was only four years old. This was even before she could read words!

Her family later moved to Philadelphia. There, she started playing the flute. When she was fifteen, she also began playing the piano. She felt her music lessons in high school were not very good.

Becoming a Musician and Composer

Because her parents did not want her to study music, Katherine first went to the University of Rochester in 1955. Two years later, she moved to the Eastman School of Music. There, she studied with a famous flutist named Joseph Mariano. She also started learning how to compose music. In 1959, she earned a degree in Music Theory. She also received a special certificate for her flute playing.

However, her composition classes were not very encouraging. Katherine said there were no women composers involved at all. She felt ignored because she was the only woman in her classes. After finishing at Eastman, she moved to Manhattan. For the next ten years, she focused on playing music and teaching.

Teaching and First Compositions

In the summers of 1960 and 1961, Katherine went to the Yale Summer Session. She studied flute, music theory, and composition there. During this time, she also studied flute with William Kincaid in Philadelphia. From 1961 to 1967, Katherine taught flute at the Juilliard Preparatory School. She also taught at other small schools, like the Third Street Music School.

It was at the Third Street Music School that Katherine had her first good experience as a composer. She was asked to write a piece for a school concert. It was a duet for two violins. Everyone loved the music she wrote!

In 1969, Katherine began teaching flute and theory at the Manhattan School of Music. She worked there for fifteen years. While teaching, she continued her own studies. In 1974, she earned her Master of Music in Music Theory. In 1972, her first composition was published. It was called Three Carols for choir and flute. It was published by Carl Fischer. Katherine also taught flute and composition to graduate students. This was at the Teachers College, Columbia University from 1986 to 1989.

Publishing Her Own Music

In 1990, Katherine wrote Kokopeli. This piece was for solo flute. It was inspired by the Hopi tribe and the American Southwest. Around this time, she started her own publishing company called Papagena Press. She created it to publish her own musical works. Kokopeli was the first piece published by Papagena Press. It won an award from the National Flute Association in 1991. This was one of four awards she won from them.

Katherine was very active in groups that supported women in the arts. She worked to help people discover music by women composers. In 1977, she started working with the Women's Inter-Art Center in New York. There, she organized three festivals of women's music. These festivals featured music by 55 women composers from history and modern times.

In 1996, Katherine was the special composer for the Fourth Festival of Women Composers. This event took place at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In her later years, Katherine lived in New York City with her husband, Richard Goodwin. She kept writing new music. She also continued to promote music by women composers.

Katherine Hoover's Music Style

Katherine Hoover's journey as a composer started slowly. Her parents did not want her to pursue music. Also, her composition teachers did not pay much attention to her because she was a woman. This is why she did not publish music until 1972. Katherine said she mostly taught herself how to compose. She had some formal training, but her main studies were in music theory. She felt she learned the most about composing while teaching music theory.

Teaching theory made her carefully study many different types of music. She especially studied music from the twentieth century. Katherine also spent a lot of time at the Manhattan School learning how people hear sounds. She had perfect pitch, which meant she could identify notes easily. This helped her understand how others heard sounds as she composed.

What Makes Her Music Special?

People have described Katherine Hoover's music as "romantic" and "pictorial." This means it often tells a story or paints a picture. Her music is also described as "clear and eloquent." It has moments of "startling beauty." Three main things stand out in her music:

• Stories and Pictures: She often found inspiration from things outside of music.
• Borrowing Melodies: She used parts of other composers' melodies.
• Original Ideas: She also created her own unique musical material.

Katherine found inspiration from many different sources. For example, three of her flute pieces, Kokopeli, Winter Spirits, and To Greet the Sun, were influenced by Native American music. They were inspired by the sounds of the Hopi tribe in the American Southwest. Her orchestral piece Eleni: A Greek Tragedy was inspired by a book. Similarly, her Medieval Suite was inspired by a history book. Night Skies was inspired by a painting of the starry evening sky. Because she used these outside ideas, her music often feels like it's painting a picture or telling a story.

Katherine was also known for using parts of other composers' melodies. She would then mix these borrowed melodies with her own original music. A clear example is her piece Celebration for Flute Choir. She wrote it for her teacher Joseph Mariano's 90th birthday. In this piece, she used parts of famous flute songs. She put her own music next to these well-known melodies.

Sometimes, her use of borrowed melodies was not so obvious. In her Medieval Suite, she used a melody from a composer named Guillaume de Machaut. She changed the melody in different ways. She might use only small parts of it or play it at a different pitch. This shows how she cleverly changed melodies and mixed them with her own ideas.

Why She Wrote for Flute and Small Groups

Katherine Hoover became very famous for her flute compositions. This was natural because she was also a very talented flutist. She believed that being a good performer helped her write music. She said it helps composers understand what musicians need. Her flute music shows how well she knew the instrument.

However, her compositions were not just for the flute. She wrote music for many different instruments and groups. Most of her music was for chamber groups. These are small groups of musicians. She explained that this was a practical choice, not an artistic one. It is harder for composers to get orchestras to play new music. Conductors often do not have time to study new pieces. Despite this, Katherine did compose several orchestral works and concertos.

The famous composer John Corigliano praised Katherine Hoover. He said she was an "extraordinary composer." He noted that her music was "fresh and individual." He believed she was "too good not to be recognized."

Honors and Awards

• Member Laureate, Sigma Alpha Iota
• National Endowment for the Arts Composer's Fellowship, 1979
• Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award in Composition, 1994
• National Flute Association Newly Published Music Competition, 1987, 1991, 1993, 1994