Fantasy Pieces

The Fantasy Pieces for cello, alto saxophone and piano, is one of several recent chamber works composed for saxophone and strings. (Terzetto for violin, tenor saxophone and piano, Lyric Suite for viola, tenor saxophone and piano and Quartet for soprano saxophone and string trio, are also published by To the Fore Publishers..) Fantasy Pieces was completed in 2003 for the saxophonist Vernon Neeley.

Walter Hartley (born February 21, 1927, Washington, D.C.) began composing at age five and became seriously dedicated to it at sixteen. All his college degrees are from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester. He received his Ph.D. in composition there in 1953. Some of his teachers were Burrill Phillips, Thomas Canning, Herbert Elwell, Bernard Rogers, Howard Hanson and Dante Fiorillo.

At present he is Professor Emeritus of Music and Composer-in-Residence at State University College, Fredonia, N.Y. He also taught piano, theory and composition at the National Music Camp (now Interlochen Arts Camp) at Interlochen, Michigan from 1956 to 1964.

His list of acknowledged works is now over 200, dating from 1949 on, and most of these are published. He is a member of the American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers, from which he has received an annual award for achievement in serious music since 1962. A large and significant number of these are for wind instruments, especially low brasses and saxophones, including every member of the the saxophone family in solo and ensemble works.

To the Fore Publishers




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Paul Cohen
To The Fore Publishers
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