Sorrel Hays Rediscovered Concert Now Streaming On YouTube

On Tuesday, June 6, North/South Consonance, Inc. celebrated the life and work of Sorrel Hays (1941-2020), the multifaceted American composer who resided in New York City during the second half of the 20th century.

The in-person event was held at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music (450 West 37th St; New York, NY 10018).

Born Doris Ernestine Hays in Memphis, Tennessee, Hays adopted her grandmother's family name of Sorrel in 1985. She first studied music at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga before attending for three years the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, Germany. Upon her return to the US she studied with Paul Badura-Skoda and Rudolf Kolisch at the University of Wisconsin in Madison

Hays taught at Cornell College in Iowa, and then moved to New York City where she studied with pianist Hilde Somer. In 1971 she won first prize in the Gaudeamus Competition for Interpreters of New Music at Rotterdam and began an international career as a pianist. She became known as one of the world's foremost performers of Henry Cowell's cluster piano music.

Hays served as director of the graduate program in electronic music at Yildiz University, Istanbul and lectured at many colleges and universities including Vassar and Brooklyn College.

A powerful advocate for gender parity for women in all aspects of music, technology and in cultural institutions, Hays achieved among other gains, the inclusion of women on ASCAP's Standard Awards Panel for the first time, and the addition of female composers to the repertoire of the Rockefeller Foundation's competition for the performance of American music. In the fall of 1976 Sorrel Hays and composer Beth Anderson curated a ground-breaking series of twelve concerts, Meet the Woman Composer, at the New School for Social Research, New York - an early and brilliant assertion that parity in programming is essential.

Stream now at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrgFh5gMiVDAV8NIkOFqhItTKGFtjNn03