Walter Sinclair Hartley (February 21, 1927 – June 30, 2016) was an American composer of contemporary classical music.

Life and career

He was born in Washington, D.C., began composing at age five and became seriously dedicated to it at sixteen. All his college degrees are from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester. He received his Ph.D. in composition there in 1953. Some of his teachers were Burrill Phillips, Thomas Canning, Herbert Elwell, Bernard Rogers, Howard Hanson and Dante Fiorillo. He and the former Sandra Mount married June 17, 1960; the couple is survived by two daughters and five grandchildren. Hartley was Professor Emeritus of Music at the State University of New York at Fredonia in Fredonia, New York. He also taught piano, theory and composition at the National Music Camp (now Interlochen Arts Camp) in Interlochen, Michigan from 1956 to 1964. He then became composer-in-residence at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte located in Charlotte, North Carolina until his death.

List of compositions

His list of compositions and arrangements is over 300, dating from 1949 on, and most of these are published. He was a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), from which he received an annual award for achievement in serious music since 1962. His music has been performed by many ensembles, including the National Symphony Orchestra, Oklahoma City Symphony, Eastman-Rochester Orchestra and the Eastman Wind Ensemble. His Chamber Symphony of 1954 was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation; his Concert Overture for orchestra received a prize from the National Symphony Orchestra in 1955; and his Sinfonia No. 3 for brass choir won for him the 1964 Conn Award. Since then, he had received many commissions from college and high school musical organizations. A lately published orchestral work, Symphony No. 3, was commissioned by the Greater Buffalo (New York) Youth Orchestra; several band works were commissioned by U.S. service bands. There have been many recordings. He wrote Concerto for 23 Winds at the age of thirty in 1957. Hartley was also considered one of the most prolific composers of music for the saxophone. Catalogue of works 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011