Music Related Biography

How Hunter Got Into Music

Having completed a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of California, Davis in 1994, Hunter didn’t start composing or doing anything with music again until 2002 when he found the notation software, Sibelius.

Always interested in composition and having had a couple of extra, upper division composition classes while at UC Davis, Sibelius unlocked the world he thought he had left behind. The tool made laying out ideas and changing them much easier. These ideas could be played back instantly too. Sibelius allows you to mock-up thoughts quicker without the frustration of writing them out on paper with pencil and eraser. Not requiring precise penmanship and being so intuitive, Sibelius greatly helped Hunter's music writing. Being a software engineer by day, Hunter found this use of the computer perfect for his creative outlet. He essentially started over and learned a great many basic things about music theory and notation all due to Sibelius.

Although music was in Hunter’s family, he learned how to read music from private teachers. With instinctive, obvious musicality, his father could play piano only by ear. Hunter began formal music training at the age of 4 or 5 with piano lessons, which lasted for a few years. At age 9 (the fourth grade) Hunter followed his older brother’s path and began trumpet with his elementary school band. At 10, he switched to baritone horn (really a euphonium) which is a low brass instrument. In 6th grade, at age 12, he joined the local school districts, wider, “District Band”.

Continuing his baritone horn playing in high school (Fountain Valley High School in Fountain Valley, CA) for three years, he also played tuba his senior (fourth) year when there was a lack of readily available tuba players needed by his director.

Meanwhile, for his junior year of high school at age 16, Hunter joined the school’s Concert Choir. He really enjoyed the musical experience and found he had a stronger, natural talent for voice that led to greater performance success. His senior year was busy. Being in the high school band, orchestra, and Concert Choir, Hunter was also in the high school madrigal/chamber group known as the Troubadours, the Orange Country Youth Honor Choir, and the Southern California Honor Choir. He began studying voice with private teachers in earnest and also rekindled piano with new private lessons again.

Once in college at the University of California, Davis, Hunter left low brass behind and concentrated on voice as his performance focus. He sang in the University Chorus, the Chamber Singers, the Early Music Ensemble, and was in a fully staged production of “My Fair Lady.” He also auditioned, arranged, and directed the musical theater club for a show doing a Disney Review.

His department voice instructor while at Davis was Stephanie Friedman, who premiered roles in the operas of John Adams (Nixon in China, and The Death of Klinghoffer). With Mrs. Friedman, Hunter studied German lieder and expanded his upper range into a solid high baritone, or second tenor range. Never really liking opera singing, he found his temperament and style more suited toward lieder and art songs. Albert McNeil and then Paul Hillier were directors of the choruses at the time. His upper division theory and composition studies were with Ross Bauer and Andrew Frank. Hunter also took undergraduate conducting from D. Kern Holoman, whose great flare on the podium and mastery of the art of teaching music history, was a great influence upon him.

After graduation, from University, Hunter didn’t continue with music but instead worked in the very new online world of the Internet in 1995 which has lead to a good and stable career as a web software engineer. (He was a part of the Oakland Symphony Chorus for one concert but did not enjoy the experience.)

Relatively recently, Hunter did have a year of classical guitar lessons, and enjoys learning new instruments especially when wanting to write music for them. Having a mind that craves encyclopedic trivia, he also enjoys the less commonly known stories of the greater and lesser composers the deeper he dives into music history. He has a strange fondness and fetish for pipe organ music too.

Now, in 2010, Hunter is further rekindling his performance training and is re-taking up the euphonium.