Composers > Jean Hasse
JEAN HASSE
Jean Hasse was born in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, 1958, and graduated from Oberlin College Conservatory, Ohio, specialising in piano, conducting and instrumental music education; she then did graduate work and teaching at Cleveland State University. A varied career as a teacher, multi-instrumentalist, concert producer, music copyist, editor and publisher has included managing Margun Music (then owned by Gunther Schuller) and acting as the US and Canadian Representative for Faber Music Ltd. London, as well as forming her own publishing company, Visible Music, in 1987. While living in Boston, Jean was also a member of the popular music ensemble, The Composers in Red Sneakers. She has received fellowships for composing residencies at the MacDowell Colony (NH) and the Millay Colony for the Arts (NY) and has received commissions from many solo performers and chamber ensembles in the US and UK.
As a music copyist and editor she has worked for several publishing companies and for dozens of composers, including John Williams, Ornette Coleman and Paul McCartney. She recently did the music score preparation work for the UK feature film, The Killing of John Lennon. She moved to England in December 1994 and works as a composer, pianist, teacher and publisher. In September 2006 she completed an MA degree at Bristol University, focusing on Composing for Film and Television (MAFTV).
Hasse's music has been heard throughout the United States and Europe, in Canada, Japan and Australia, with performances at venues including the Tanglewood Music Center, Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, London's South Bank Centre, Barbican Centre, Wigmore Hall, the British Museum, St Paul's Cathedral, St George's Hall Bristol, and at numerous festivals.
In 1999, Hasse produced a CD, kinkh, that includes much of her piano music, as well as Pulling (flutes) and After Earle (percussion). She composed music for the soundtrack of a film produced by Paul Swensen in 1999, So the Wind Won‘t Blow it All Away, based on a Richard Brautigan story, shown at festivals in the US and Europe. In 2001, she began a three-year project of composing new ring tone melodies for mobile phones, beginning with the Internet company iobox, which led to appearances on television and radio.
Hasse now composes for films, videos, websites and special events, along with new concert music pieces. She has taught Composition at the University of Bristol and now continues there as Course Tutor for the MAFTV in Composition.
In October 2007, her new chamber orchestra score accompanied the 1926 silent film, Faust, in performances in Bristol and at London's Barbican Centre. Recent commissions include new scores for the silent films Mabel's Dramatic Career (solo piano accompaniment) and Ghosts Before Breakfast (quartet). In November 2008, as part of a trio, she performed her new score to the 1925 film, The Rat, in Bristol. In July 2009 she accompanied several silent films at an international conference on Colour Film and Restoration in Bristol. A new score to the 1928 film, The Fall of the House of Usher, commissioned by the UK ensemble, Counterpoise, premiered at London's Kings Place in March 2010. Counterpoise has toured numerous UK cities with the Ghosts and Usher film scores.
Projects in 2010 include composing for an hour-long documentary on autism for PBS-television broadcast, as well as scoring a ten-minute animation film (DVD combined with a childrens' book).
