Hayden Wayne (born March 2, 1949) is a modern
American composer and
librettist. Due to his background in
popular music, his style is an amalgamation of
classical music influenced by popular idioms. Wayne also has several film scores and award-winning commercials for television to his credit.
Biography
His study of the
piano began at the age of four, played tenor drum in the orchestra pit of
The King And I at the age of five which his father was conducting, and performed his first composition in concert at the age of eleven. He won a second prize medal for piano solo from the
New York State Music Awards at fifteen and subsequently toured with a series of rock 'n' roll bands including Man on
CBS Records) and
Jobriath on
Elektra Records.
As a composer, Wayne opened a new theater for the Mark Taper Forum in
Los Angeles with his metaphorical circus Wire, won national first place (1987) from the National Institute for Music Theater with
NEON (A Street Opera). In 2002,
NEON won a 25,000 DM prize in the Prague Opera Competition. He was commissioned to write
In Memoriam: A Celebration by the Interfaith Concert of Holocaust Remembrance, which premiered at Saint John the Divine in New York in 1993. Subsequently linked with
Sinfonietta No. 1: The Klezmer and
An Elegy Into Madness, specifically commissioned for the Fiftieth Anniversary of Israel, and titled A Triptych, had its world première at Mandel Hall, the
University of Chicago in January 1998.
To date, Wayne has written over 400...
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