Lee Hyla

Venerated as a leading figure among contemporary composers and pianists, Lee Hyla attracted extensive awards, grants, and commissions across multiple decades. Born in Niagara Falls, New York, he grew up in Greencastle, Indiana before relocating to New York to pursue composition studies with David Lewin at SUNY Stony Brook. He subsequently moved to Boston for further training under Malcolm Peyton at the New England Conservatory. By the late 1990s Hyla had joined the NEC faculty, serving as co-chairman of its composition department. Among his distinctions were a Guggenheim Fellowship, two NEA fellowships, the Stoeger Prize, the Rome Prize, and numerous additional major honors. He wrote pieces for the Kronos Quartet in collaboration with Allen Ginsberg, for jazz saxophonist Tim Berne, for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and for the London Sinfonietta, which presented one of his chamber-orchestra works in 1980. Commissions came from the Concert Artist's Guild, Meet the Composer, and the Quintet of the Americas, the last of whom premiered his Amnesia Breaks in 1990. Two recordings made with Jim Pugliese appeared on CRI, while releases under Hyla’s own name came out on Avant and Tzadik—the latter issuing Riff and Transfiguration in 1999, a collection of four compositions spanning 1989–1998, followed by My Life on the Plains in 2013. Additional recordings of his music are available on the New World and Nonesuch labels. Hyla died of pneumonia on June 6, 2014.