Since 1959 he has taught at Haverford College. He has received a number of prizes and fellowships. His music is published and recorded and has been played widely in the United States, as well as in Europe and Asia. Among orchestras playing his compositions have been the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra, the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, the Susquehanna Symphony, and the Minnesota Orchestra.
Davison has co-authored with John Ashmead a book on the songs of Robert Burns with new harmonizations of the folk tunes that Burns used. These have been featured in a video shown on national public television. He has written for most of the standard media, as well as for unusual instruments such as koto, cimbalom, and bagpipe. His trombone music has been particularly widely played.
John Davison's music
published by Vienna Woods Music
His organ teachers included Vernon de Tar (New York) and James Evans (Pittsburgh). His harpsichord study was with Alice Ehlers, James Tallis, and (in Amsterdam) Gustav Leonhardt.
Dr. Hill holds an endowed chair as the Thomas T. Read Professor of Mathematics at Williams College (Massachusetts), where he is also Harpsichordist-Organist in his own college-sponsored concert series. From 1972 to 1996 he was Organist-Choirmaster of St. John's Episcopal Church in Williamstown. Since 1982 he has served as Archivist of the Association of Anglican Musicians, an international organization of professionals in the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada, and the Church of England. In 1996 he was appointed to the Editorial Board of "The Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians." He has played more than 700 concerts throughout the United States and in Europe.
His principal mathematical interests are in group representation theory and in history of mathematics; he also teaches courses in mathematical logic, mathematics of finance, and English literature. He is the author of "Groups, Representations, and Characters" (Hafner/Macmillan 1975) and "Groups and Characters" (Chapman & Hall, forthcoming); he has published scholarly articles in both mathematics and music. His multi-media lecture-recital "Mathematical Aspects of the Music of Bach" has been given throughout the country.
In 1988 he was Visiting Professor of Mathematics and Artist-in-Residence at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta; he returned to Georgia Tech for 1991-92 as Visiting Professor of Mathematics. He has also held visiting appointments at Carnegie Mellon, SUNY-Albany, North Adams State College (Mass.), and the University of Oregon.
Dr. Hill has two children, Victoria Hill Resnick (Kenyon College '93) and Christopher Hill (Georgia Tech '97). As an Eagle Scout (1955), he enjoys hiking, bicycling, and ice skating at his summer home in the Berkshires, and swimming and canoeing at his summer home on a lake in Sturbridge, Mass.
Victor Hill's music published by Vienna Woods Music
Victor Hill's home
page at Williams College
A graduate of Dartmouth, he taught there until 1941. After serving in the Army during World War II, he was principal cellist of the Army's GI Symphony. In 1946 he joined the faculty at Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon University, where he taught theory and composition. He directed the student chorus (1953-1966) and served as head of the music department for two years before retiring in 1976. He was accompanist and associate director of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh for 16 years and program annotator for the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society for 26 years. His works include art songs, choral, orchestral, and chamber compositions. He twice won the Bearns Prize, administered by Columbia University: in 1933 for Housman Songs and in 1937 for his string quartet. In 1947 he was a resident at the MacDowell Colony. He actively composed and arranged music until his death in Pittsburgh in October 1995.
Roland Leich music published by Vienna Woods Music
To contact Vienna Woods Music Company, E-mail is received at tleich@viennawoodsmusic.com
Date last modified: 7/11/02
Created by: tleich@viennawoodsmusic.com