JAVS Spring 2022

In much of your repertoire, you seem to find a voice for some of the more “forgotten” instruments. What is it about these instruments that draws you to them? What is it about the repertoire? MH : With too many trumpet players in high school band, our amazing director Ione Rasmussen put me in on French horn, a neglected part of the band as it was not played. It was an epiphany that inner voices have great value and can shine just as well as anyone else. Each one has sublime and unique virtues that should be enjoyed. Even the tuba deserves a concerto in my house.

I’ve always loved the viola. Ever since hearing Basil Vendryes and others in school, and later Roberta Crawford and Melissa Matson, and many more. I’m enamored with a love of viola. When [I get] the opportunity to share this love, of course I jump right at it. Right now, I’m working on several sketches. One will be

much easier to break through that insular Gotham crust that had obstructed me for years. For me, composing is not an insular, “ivory-tower” activity, but a deep part of my life. Music and bicycling are both deeply engrained into my soul, and one activity usually tends to refresh the other quite nicely. The way you compose is so unique—a mixture of rock n’ roll, blues, neo-classical tradition, and something I can’t put my finger on. What can you tell me about your musical influences? MH : That’s a question I ponder to this day. Sometimes I think about it as being like a musical sponge. Often, I can’t put my finger on it either. Obviously the “great masters” were paramount in teaching me about form, structure, and technique. That said, having been born in the musical melting pot that is New Orleans, Louisiana, I was surrounded by many types of music—jazz, classical, Creole, rock, reggae etc.—the list goes on and on, and with many great musicians and teachers. Lots of musical knowledge, love, and joy was shared. When I went off to school in Rochester, New York, I found my Eastman School of Music experience to be incredibly nurturing. I was enthralled by the quality of musicianship and the diversity of the people there. So many talented people were in one concentrated location, giving and sharing so very much, feeding on a vast cornucopia of ideas. Conversely, I found the Juilliard School quite “forbidding” and “cold” by contrast; yet living in New York City as a “starving artist” made me realize that there was still so very much to learn.

either a viola quartet, or a double duo for two violas and two cellos. I’m kind of waiting for the Muses to tell me what they want to do. Also in progress are a string trio and a set of viola variations with piano. The Music Let’s talk about your Duo Sonata #3 for Violin and Viola . You write with the viola and violin as equals, dueling it out, playing “pass the hot potato,” and interweaving between each other. As you know, a lot of duo music (especially violin/viola) often casts the viola as secondary material or the running motor. What inspired you to give each instrument their own unique roles and voices? MH : Most any instrument can be a “running motor.” During my years playing the French horn, I was often bored with simply playing the off-beats in Sousa, etc. I figured there must be a better way—a

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 38, No. 1, Spring 2022