“Katherine Hoover, a composer and flutist who wrote not only for her instrument but also for strings, piano, woodwinds, full orchestra and voice, died on Friday in Manhattan,” writes Neil Genzlinger in Wednesday’s (9/26) New York Times. “She was 80…. Hoover began writing music in earnest in the early 1970s…. She was still creating new works into this decade.… Her best-known work … was probably ‘Kokopeli’ (1990), a piece for flute that was inspired … by American Indian music and culture…. Katherine Lacy Hoover was born on Dec. 2, 1937, in Elkin, W.Va. … Hoover … received a bachelor’s degree in music theory and a performance certificate in flute in 1959 from the Eastman School of Music [where she recalled she] ‘was the only female in class, with six guys, all grad students.’ … In the 1960s Ms. Hoover focused on performing…. In 1969 she began teaching at the Manhattan School of Music, while also resuming her studies and earning a master’s degree in music theory there in 1974…. The dozens of works she eventually produced have been performed by some 60 groups.” She is survived by her husband, Richard Goodwin, and her son, Norman Schwab.
Posted September 28, 2018
