Sorrel Hays facts for kids

Sorrel Hays (August 6, 1941 – February 9, 2020) was an amazing American musician. She was a talented pianist, a creative composer, and an artist. Sorrel Hays was known for her unique piano playing and for writing many different kinds of music.

Her Life Story

Sorrel Hays was born Doris Ernestine Hays in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1985, she chose to use her grandmother's family name, Sorrel.

Her Education

Sorrel loved music from a young age. She studied music with Harold Cadek at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She graduated from there in 1963. After that, she went to Germany for three years. There, she studied with Friedrich Wührer and Hedwig Bilgram at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich. She then came back to the United States. She studied with Paul Badura-Skoda and Rudolf Kolisch at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She earned a Master of Music degree there.

Her Music Career

After finishing her studies, Sorrel Hays taught at Cornell College in Iowa. Later, she moved to New York City. There, she continued to study piano with Hilde Somer. In 1971, she won a big award. It was the first prize in the Gaudeamus Competition in Rotterdam. This competition was for people who played new and modern music.

Winning this award helped her start a global career as a pianist. She became known as one of the best players of "cluster piano music." This is a special way of playing the piano where many notes are played very close together at the same time.

Sorrel Hays also shared her knowledge with others. In 1998, she led a program about electronic music at Yildiz University in Istanbul. She also taught as a guest teacher at many colleges. These included Vassar and Brooklyn College.

What She Created

Sorrel Hays was a very creative person. She wrote music for many different things. This included music for plays, films, and small groups of musicians. She also composed electronic music.

Her Musical Works

Here are some of the musical pieces she created:

• Our Giraffe (an opera, which is a play set to music)
• Hands and Lights (for piano strings, using special switches and flashlights)
• Tunings (for a group of string instruments)
• The Glass Woman (another opera)
• Traveling (music based on tiny changes in sound waves)
• Debushing America
• Take A Back Country Road (for electronic saxophone, oboe, and a special keyboard called a DX-7)

Her Films

Sorrel Hays was also a filmmaker. She made movies, including:

• Disarming the World/Pulling Its Leg (a docudrama, which mixes documentary and drama)