Edward W. Hardy (born January 12, 1992) is an American composer, music director, violinist and violist. He is known as the composer, co-conceiver, music director, and violinist of the Off-Broadway show '' The Woodsman'' and is the owner of '' The Black Violin''.

Life and career

Early life

Hardy began studying the violin at the Opus 118 Music School in Harlem, New York at the age of 7, studying under the instruction of

Roberta Guaspari Roberta Guaspari (born September 15, 1947) is an American violinist and music educator. She is known for her work in Harlem, New York, where she taught during the 1980s and 1990s to keep music alive in inner-city schools. She was portrayed on fil ...

, Lynelle Smith, Yonah Zur, and Elizabeth Handman. During this time, Hardy had numerous performances around the New York City area at locations including

Avery Fisher Hall David Geffen Hall is a concert hall in New York City's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The 2,200-seat auditorium opened in 1962, and is the home of the New York Philharmonic. The facility, desi ...

Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln Center in New York City. The organization was founded in 1987 and opened at Time Warner Center in October 2004. Wynton Marsalis is the artistic director and the leader of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orches ...

, FiddleFest at The

Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a ...

, and

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built ...

where he shared the stage with

Joshua Bell Joshua David Bell (born December 9, 1967) is an American violinist and conductor. He plays the Gibson Stradivarius. Early life and education Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, to Shirley Bell, a therapist, and Alan P. Bell, a psychologi ...

, Regina Carter, John Blake,

Mark O'Connor Mark O'Connor (born August 5, 1961) is an American fiddle player and composer whose music combines bluegrass, country, jazz and classical. A three-time Grammy Award winner, he has won six Country Music Association Musician Of The Year awards ...

, and

Itzhak Perlman Itzhak Perlman ( he, יצחק פרלמן; born August 31, 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist widely considered one of the greatest violinists in the world. Perlman has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that hav ...

. Three years later, Hardy became a student of the

Juilliard The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

Music Advancement Program for young musicians. Later, he worked as a freelance concert artist for five years while studying both violin and viola at both

Manhattan School of Music The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory in New York City. The school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition, as well as a bachelor's in m ...

and the Bloomingdales School of Music. During the summer months, Hardy attended The Elisabeth Morrow School of Music, Manhattan School of Music Summer Camp, Kinhaven Music School and Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival. In 2012, Hardy also performed in a masterclass by

Lawrence Dutton Lawrence Dutton (born 9 May 1954) is an American violist, and a member of the Emerson String Quartet. He earned a bachelor's and master's degree from the Juilliard School where he studied with Lillian Fuchs. He is on the faculty of the State U ...

of the

Emerson String Quartet The Emerson String Quartet, also known as the Emerson Quartet, is an American string quartet that was initially formed as a student group at the Juilliard School in 1976. It was named for American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson and beg ...

. Hardy found his love for theatre during his first undergraduate year at Purchase College. Although he was in the music conservatory, Hardy spent most of my time performing in plays presented by the acting conservatory. He composed for and performed in several plays, always in costume and on stage. By the end of his undergraduate career, Hardy fell in love with theater and with the idea of composing for theater. Hardy often composed and performed for theatrical performances both on and off the Purchase College campus. He has performed in Three Sisters; Chekhov, Blues for an Alabama Sky; Cleage,

Trojan Women ''The Trojan Women'' ( grc, Τρῳάδες, translit=Trōiades), also translated as ''The Women of Troy'', and also known by its transliterated Greek title ''Troades'', is a tragedy by the Greek playwright Euripides. Produced in 415 BC during ...

; Euripides,

Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Vi ...

; Shakespeare,

Mother Courage and Her Children ''Mother Courage and Her Children'' (german: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder, links=no) is a play written in 1939 by the German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956), with significant contributions from Margarete Steffin. Four theatrical ...

; Brecht, Beautiful Dreamer; McElwaine/Foster, all under the instruction of his mentor; James (Jim) McElwaine. In 2015, Hardy was the recipient of the Beatrice Schacher-Myers Scholarship, 2014 and 2015 recipient of the Laurence Rosenfeld Scholarship, and the Chamber Music Live Scholarship from the

Aaron Copland School of Music The Aaron Copland School of Music is one of the oldest departments at Queens College, founded when the College opened in 1937. The department's curriculum was originally established by Edwin Stringham, and a later emphasis on the analytical sy ...

in 2015. He also performed in a masterclass with violinist

Ida Kavafian Ida Kavafian ( hy, Այտա Գավաֆեան) (born October 29, 1952 in Istanbul) is an American classical violinist and violist. Biography Kavafian was born in Turkey to Armenian parents. She moved with her family to America in 1956, and began ...

at LeFrak Concert Hall in New York City. He was a student of Daniel Phillips of the Orion String Quartet Hardy earned his Masters of Music degree in Violin Performance with honors from CUNY,

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

– Aaron Copland School of Music. In 2021, Hardy moved from

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

to Greeley in pursuit of a

Doctor of Arts The Doctor of Arts (D.A.; occasionally D.Arts or Art.D. from the Latin ''artium doctor'') is a discipline-based terminal doctoral degree that was originally conceived and designed to be an alternative to the traditional research-based Doctor of ...

degree in violin performance from the

University of Northern Colorado The University of Northern Colorado (UNC) is a public university in Greeley, Colorado. The university was founded in 1889 as the State Normal School of Colorado and has a long history in teacher education. The institution has officially changed ...

. He is a student of Dr. Jubal Fulks.

''The Woodsman''

In Hardy's junior year of 2012–13 at Purchase College, he started and finished composing all the music for the first edition of ''The Woodsman'' within two months. As each rendition of play developed and molded into something new the music reflected its transformation. Except for a brief introduction, The Woodsman does not have any words and is unlike any other play. During the first meeting with the playwright, both Hardy and Ortiz examined the synopsis of the play. This was Hardy's opportunity to think of this play like a silent film and tell a story through music. He explored different genres of music to create everything from the sound of nature to the different instruments in an orchestra. The

program music Program music or programatic music is a type of instrumental art music that attempts to musically render an extramusical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience through the piece's title, or in the form of program notes ...

plays a significant role in the play.”

''Edgar Allan Poe's Inspired Works''

Hardy composed “Three Pieces Inspired By

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

”: Nevermore, Evil Eye and A Fantasy were recorded by

Grammy award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

winner John Kilgore, Jonathan Jetter and produced by Jim McElwaine. Nevermore was premiered at Hardy's first one-man sold-out show “Six Violins: A Musical Evening with Edward W. Hardy” at

the Cutting Room The Cutting Room is a music venue in New York City that was open at 19 West 24th Street from late 1999 through January 2009 for music of all varieties and reopened at the beginning of 2013 in a new location at 44 East 32nd Street. It was co-owned ...

in NYC which also featured Hardy playing three his violins on WNYW - Fox 5 news.

Works

Unaccompanied solo violin

Sources: Music by Black Composers (MBC,

Rachel Barton Pine Rachel Barton Pine (born Rachel Elizabeth Barton, October 11, 1974) is an American violinist. She debuted with the Chicago Symphony at age 10, and was the first American and youngest ever gold medal winner of the International Johann Sebastian Ba ...

), Musical Stories. * '' Nick Chopper'' (2012, published 2022) * '' Nimme and the Wicked Witch of the East'' (2012, published 2022) * '' The Kalidah'' (2012, published 2022) * '' Nick Chopper & Nimmie Amee'' (2012, published 2022) * '' Finding Love'' (2012, published 2022) * '' Dorothy Arrives'' (2012, published 2022) * ''The Lovers Dance'' (2016) * ''Ship at Sea'' (2016) * ''Making the Perfect Dress'' (2017) * ''Odette and Siegfried’s First Dance'' (2017) * ''Swans at the Shore'' (2017) * ''Nevermore'' from Three Pieces Inspired by

(2018) * ''Evolution - Inspired by the evolution of Black Music'' (2019) * ''Mama, now I can breathe'' (2020)

Instrumental chamber music

* '' Tinkers'', percussion and solo violin (2012, published 2022) * ''Strange Fruit'', arrangement for string quartet (2020) * ''Flying (Dancing in Spanish Harlem)'', for Latin ensemble (2018) * ''Flying (Dancing in Spanish Harlem)'', for string quartet (2018) * ''Evil Eye'' (from Three Pieces Inspired by

), for string quartet (2018) * ''A Fantasy'' (from Three Pieces Inspired by

), for string quartet (2018)

Voice and solo violin

* '' Cerulean Sky (Prologue)'', for choir and solo violin (2012, published 2022) * '' Whispering Munchkins-Dark Woods'', for choir, solo voice and solo violin (2012, published 2022) * '' Forever Yours'', for soprano, tenor and solo violin (2012, published 2022) * '' My Heart Is Gone'', for soprano and solo violin (2012, published 2022) * ''

Rusting Tin Man Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH) ...

'', for lead tenor, soprano, tenor, solo violin and choir (2012, published 2022)

Song cycles

* ''BORN FREE'' - ''Sorrow Home, Lineage, The Struggle Staggers Us'' and ''Southern Song'', for soprano, violin and piano (2022)

Solo harp

* ''Alone'' (2020)

Plays

* ''Dream Chaser'', play with music (2019)

Television

Discography

Soundtracks and Original Cast Recordings

Singles

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardy, Edward W. 1992 births Living people Musicians from New York City Jazz musicians from New York (state) Writers from New York City American classical composers American classical violinists American multi-instrumentalists American music arrangers American male classical composers American music educators American music publishers (people) American songwriters American male dramatists and playwrights American musical theatre composers American people of African descent American people of Puerto Rican descent American male jazz musicians African-American classical composers African-American male classical composers African-American music educators African-American songwriters African-American jazz musicians Jazz-influenced classical composers Light music composers Male classical violinists Male musical theatre composers Organization founders Violin pedagogues Queens College, City University of New York alumni State University of New York at Purchase alumni University of Northern Colorado alumni 20th-century American violinists 21st-century American violinists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century American male writers 20th-century classical violinists 21st-century classical violinists 21st-century American male actors 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights