Hilary Purrington

Hilary Purrington (b. 1990) is a New England-based composer whose work has been recognized by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), and the National Federation of Music Clubs (NFMC), among others. In the summer of 2012, Purrington received funding through a Wagoner Foreign Study Grant to study Music Composition and German Language at the Freie Universität Berlin, and in the summer of 2013, she participated as a Fellow at the Yale School of Music Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Most recently, she was featured in the 2016 NY PHIL BIENNIAL. Purrington’s music has been performed by many distinguished ensembles, including the Peabody Modern Orchestra, the Yale Philharmonia, the American Modern Ensemble, and the ChoralArt Camerata. Recent commissions include new works for the Chicago Harp Quartet, the Musical Chairs Chamber Ensemble, and the Melodia Women’s Choir of NYC. Upcoming projects include commissions from Washington Square Winds, inFLUX, and the New York Youth Symphony. Purrington holds degrees from The Juilliard School and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. She is currently pursuing a Master of Musical Arts at the Yale School of Music.

Likely Pictures in Haphazard Sky (2016) contrasts moments of delicate sparseness with passages of rich textures and emphatic lyricism.  Throughout the work, the fragments introduced in the sparse, faltering opening gradually coalesce into distinct melodic ideas. The title comes from a poem called “Starlight” by William Meredith. Meredith uses constellations to explore, among other things, our natural fear of randomness and our instinctive desire to find or create meaningful patterns.  ~Hilary Purrington