Dr. James Hartway
Born in Detroit, Michigan in
1944, James Hartway began a lifelong study of music with piano
lessons at age seven. In middle school and throughout high
school he pursued this avocation with diligence by forming his
own jazz quartet, learning to play percussion, and amassing a
substantial collection of both classical and jazz recordings.
During college the “for fun” avocation turned into a serious
vocation. Hartway earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Music
degrees from Wayne State University, and a Ph.D. in music from
Michigan State University. His principal composition teachers
have been H. Owen Reed and Ruth Shaw Wylie.
As a professional composer,
Dr. Hartway has received sixty commissions from major musical
organizations and educational institutions; and, has composed
ninety works. He has been asked to create pieces for the Detroit
Symphony Orchestra, the American Artist Series, the Meadow Brook
Music Festival, the American Guild of Organists, the Michigan
Opera Theater, the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit for the Papal
visit of John Paul II to the United States, the Scarab Club,
Printemps Musicale des Alizés of Morocco, the Detroit Chamber
Winds and Strings, the Verdher Trio, the Woodland Trio, and
various other chamber music groups and soloists; and, he has
served as composer-in-residence for the Chamber Music Conference
and Composers Forum of the East in Bennington, Vermont.
Hartway's original
compositions have been recorded, choreographed, and performed
throughout the United States and in Canada, South America,
Europe, Scandinavia, Japan, China, and Africa. Maestri Lukas
Foss, Sixten Ehrling, Kenneth Jean, Michael Krajewski, David
Daniels, Kypros Markou and many others have conducted his
symphonic works. In 1982 he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize
in music for his concerto for jazz quartet and orchestra
“Cityscapes.” He is the proud recipient of an Arts Foundation of
Michigan Award and has received a Resolution of Tribute from the
Michigan Senate. He has been an annual winner of the ASCAP
Standard Panel Award for his compositions since 1978, and has
been named the Detroit Music Awards “Outstanding Classical
Composer” three times. His “Affair of the Harp” CD was the
Detroit Music Awards “Outstanding Classical Recording” for
2005. His music appears on thirteen different CD collections.
Dr. James Hartway is
currently a Distinguished Professor of Music at Wayne State
University and is the Director of its Division of Music
Composition and Theory.
