About
Born in Wisconsin, Hoiby grew up a piano prodigy as a child. He earned his Bachelor of Music at the University of Wisconsin in 1947, when the university was a haven for musicians fleeing World War II Europe. He subsequently studied at Mills College until completing his Master of Music in 1952.
Despite his original intention to become a concert pianist, Hoiby took up composition upon his acceptance into the Curtis Institute to study with Gian Carlo Menotti. (However, Hoiby took up the piano again after many years of focus on composition and, following his debut recital at Alice Tully Hall in 1978, performed frequently in recitals throughout the United States.) Hoiby passed away on March 28, 2011 in New York City after a short illness.
Operatic, choral, and vocal music comprises the bulk of Hoiby’s output. His music follows the romantic traditions developed by Menotti and Barber, characterized by lyricism and a touch of humor. He rejected trends of the 20th century, such as atonality and minimalism, and preferred to write in a simple diatonic language with some venturing into chromaticism.
Since the 1980s, Hoiby’s music has achieved more attention, with more and more performances and recordings appearing on the scene.
–Christie Finn
Source: Richard Jackson and Walter G. Simmons’ article in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
Related Information
Songs
A Clear Midnight
Lee Hoiby
Walt Whitman
Song Collection: I Was There: Five Poems of Walt Whitman
A Letter
Lee Hoiby
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Four Dickinson Songs
Angélique
Lee Hoiby
Adelaide Crapsey
Song Collection: Night Songs: Four Poems of A. Crapsey
Before My Door
Lee Hoiby
Wallace Stevens
Song Collection: O Florida
Beginning My Studies
Lee Hoiby
Walt Whitman
Song Collection: I Was There: Five Poems of Walt Whitman
Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter
Lee Hoiby
John Crowe Ransom
Song Collection: Southern Voices
Butterflies
Lee Hoiby
A. R. Ammons
Song Collection: Southern Voices
Continual Conversation with a Silent Man
Lee Hoiby
Wallace Stevens
Song Collection: O Florida
Filling Station
Lee Hoiby
Elizabeth Bishop
Song Collection: Three Ages of Woman
Floral Decorations for Bananas
Lee Hoiby
Wallace Stevens
Song Collection: O Florida
Four Dickinson Songs
Song CollectionRobert Beaser
Emily Dickinson
Gubbinal
Lee Hoiby
Wallace Stevens
Song Collection: O Florida
How the Waters Closed
Lee Hoiby
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Four Dickinson Songs
I Was There
Lee Hoiby
Walt Whitman
Song Collection: I Was There: Five Poems of Walt Whitman
I Was There: Five Poems of Walt Whitman
Song CollectionLee Hoiby
Walt Whitman
Insomnia
Lee Hoiby
Elizabeth Bishop
Song Collection: Three Ages of Woman
Joy, Shipmate, Joy!
Lee Hoiby
Walt Whitman
Song Collection: I Was There: Five Poems of Walt Whitman
Lady of the Harbor
Lee Hoiby
Emma Lazarus
Lullaby
Lee Hoiby
Robert Penn Warren
Song Collection: Southern Voices
Manners
Lee Hoiby
Elizabeth Bishop
Song Collection: Three Ages of Woman
Miss Alma Calls
Lee Hoiby
Tennessee Williams
Song Collection: Three Women
Night
Lee Hoiby
Adelaide Crapsey
Song Collection: Night Songs: Four Poems of A. Crapsey
Night Songs: Four Poems of A. Crapsey
Song CollectionLee Hoiby
Adelaide Crapsey
O Captain! My Captain!
Lee Hoiby
Walt Whitman
Song Collection: I Was There: Five Poems of Walt Whitman
O Florida
Song CollectionLee Hoiby
Wallace Stevens
O Florida
Lee Hoiby
Wallace Stevens
Song Collection: O Florida
Pierrot
Lee Hoiby
Adelaide Crapsey
Song Collection: Night Songs: Four Poems of A. Crapsey
Southern Voices
Song CollectionLee Hoiby
A. R. Ammons
Robert Penn Warren
John Crowe Ransom
Carson McCullers
The Shroud
Lee Hoiby
Adelaide Crapsey
Song Collection: Night Songs: Four Poems of A. Crapsey
The Waltz
Lee Hoiby
Dorothy Parker
Song Collection: Three Women
There Came a Wind Like a Bugle
Lee Hoiby
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Four Dickinson Songs
Three Ages of Woman
Song CollectionLee Hoiby
Elizabeth Bishop
Three Women
Song CollectionLee Hoiby
Tennessee Williams
Emma Lazarus
Dorothy Parker
Wild Nights
Lee Hoiby
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Four Dickinson Songs
Videos
Recordings
In Jest: Comic Art Songs
(Leonard Bernstein, William Bolcom and Lee Hoiby)
2017
Intersection: Jazz Meets Classical Song
(Lee Hoiby and John Musto)
2014
Between the Bliss and Me. . . Songs to Poems of Emily Dickinson
(Ernst Bacon, Aaron Copland, John Woods Duke, Arthur Farwell, Lee Hoiby, Lori Laitman and Richard Pearson Thomas)
2009
Songs by Stephen Lias, Michael Patterson and Lee Hoiby
(Lee Hoiby)
2009
A Pocket of Time: 21 Songs and a Duet
(Lee Hoiby)
2009
Drifts & Shadows: American Song for the New Millennium
(Tom Cipullo, Daron Aric Hagen, Martin Hennessy, Richard Hundley and Lee Hoiby)
2007
The Shining Place
(Lee Hoiby, Lori Laitman, Stephen Paulus and Simon Sargon)
2006
Dwell in Possibility: Dickinson in Song
(Ernst Bacon, Aaron Copland, Celius Dougherty, John Woods Duke, Lee Hoiby, Richard Hundley, Jake Heggie, Lori Laitman, Libby Larsen, Etta Parker, Simon Sargon, Leo Smit and Richard Pearson Thomas)
2004
Carolyn Heafner Sings American Songs
(Ernst Bacon, Hugo Weisgall, Lee Hoiby and Amy Marcy Beach)
2000
American Anthem
(Samuel Barber, William Bolcom, Aaron Copland, Lee Hoiby, Charles Ives, John Musto, John Jacob Niles, Ned Rorem and Gene Scheer)
1998
American Anthem: From Ragtime to Art Song
(Samuel Barber, Lee Hoiby, Charles Ives, John Musto, John Jacob Niles, Ned Rorem, Aaron Copland and William Bolcom)
1998
American Songs (Jennifer Larmore)
(Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, John Woods Duke, Jake Heggie, Lee Hoiby, Charles Ives, Charles Naginski and John Jacob Niles)
1997
Works By Thomson, Bowles, Hoiby, Hundley
(Paul Bowles, Lee Hoiby, Richard Hundley, John Musto, Virgil Thomson and Tennessee Williams)
1988
Where the Music Comes From
(Lee Hoiby, Celius Dougherty, Ned Rorem, Henry T. Burleigh, Samuel Barber, Arthur Farwell and Charles Griffes)
1991
Sheet Music
28 Songs by American and British Composers
Composer(s): John Duke
Song(s): Barber: Must the Winter Come so Soon?
Bernstein: Two Love Songs (Extinguish My Eyes, When My Soul Touches Yours)
Bowles: Heavenly Grass
Carpenter: When I Bring to You Colour'd Toys
Corigliano: Christmas at the Cloisters, The Unicorn
Dougherty: Sound the Flute!
Duke: Peggy Mitchell
Hoiby: An Immorality
Moore: The Dove Song (The Wings of the Dove)
Sargent: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Thomson: English Usage, The Tiger
Vaughan Williams: Hugh's Song of the Road
Wells: Everyone Sang
Night Songs: Four Poems of A. Crapsey
Composer(s): Lee Hoiby
Voice Type: High
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