Bio
Fusing a punk/grunge background with spectral techniques and classical refinement, Miami composer Dorothy Hindman pushes the boundaries of the technically possible with unique, visceral elegance. Critics call her music “bright with energy and a lilting lyricism” (New York Classical Review), “dramatic, highly strung” (Fanfare), “varied, utterly rich … with purpose and heart” (Huffington Post), “powerful and skillfully conceived” (The Miami Herald), and “music of terrific romantic gesture” (The Buffalo News). Of her CD Tightly Wound, ICON magazine says, “Hindman’s music weds technique and syntax of classical music with the directness and impudence of rock. Highly recommended for rockers wishing to get their proverbial feet wet in post-20th century classical music.”
Her over 450 performances to date span 150 cities, 36 states, and 22 countries, in venues including Carnegie Hall, the United Nations, Alice Tully Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, the American Academy in Rome, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, Berlin’s BKA-Theater, and Miami’s New World Center. Numerous festival performances include the Havana Contemporary Music Festival, 2nd Festival Expresiones Contemporaneas, ISCM/New Music Miami, Boston Microtonal Society, Australian Flute Festival, Birmingham New Music Festival, Charlotte New Music Festival, and Nuovi Spazi Musicali Festival. Her collaboration with artist Sally Johnson has been exhibited in major museums throughout the Southeast.
Surface impact in Hindman’s music comes from the driving rhythms and distortion of her punk/rock roots. Through juxtaposition, imitation and fragmentation, simple ideas are woven into highly complex structures, while revealing deeper emotional and intellectual levels. Timbre is a primary compositional concern for Hindman, a former rock band synth player. Dissections, explorations and manipulations of sonic models often provide formal or conceptual bases for her music.
Virtuosic and hardcore, Hindman’s music requires like-minded pioneering spirits. Hindman’s catalog of over 100 works is championed by the world’s top new music performers including CAMP, Ex-Sentia, Bent Frequency, Empire City Men’s Chorus, Fresh Squeezed Opera, Quince, Splinter Reeds, the [Switch~ Ensemble], Gregg Smith Singers, Caravel String Quartet, New York Saxophone Quartet, Corona Guitar Kvartet, Duo 46, bassist Robert Black, cellist Craig Hultgren, percussionists Stuart Gerber and David Moliner, and more. Festival appearances include Havana Contemporary Music Festival, Australian Flute Festival, and Rome’s Nuovi Spazi Musicali. Artistic collaborations include scoring Carrie Mae Weem’s film Italian Dreams, and The Wall Calls to Me with visual artist Sally Wood Johnson.
Hindman’s music often engages with autobiographical and social issues. She writes:
“My purpose as a composer is to present my unique human perspective, challenge assumptions, and expand one’s understanding of themselves and others. Inspired by local history and personal experience, I explore my mis/understanding of past and current events, and the cultural, social and economic legacies I have inherited. I want to captivate my listener, to reach and touch their humanity, to place a demand on their attention that is rewarded. My music is provocative, but also engaging, memorable, and ultimately meant to affect positive change. Ideally, whatever the listener takes away can be cathartic.”
Grant support for Hindman’s work has come from the Mellon Foundation, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Alabama State Council on the Arts. Her prizes and recognition include Resonate 2024, the 2023 14th Edition of the “Città di Udine” International Composition, NODUS 2022 Fundacio Caixa Castello, Here and Now Miami Light Project Commission 2021, Coction Ensamble 2020, the American Prize, three Gold Medals in the Global Music Awards, 2017 ISCM/New Music Miami, 2017 Boston Microtonal Society, Iron Composer 2015, NoteNova Choral Competition, Almquist Choral Composition Award, Nancy Van de Vate International Composition Prize for Opera, International Society of Bassists Solo Composition Competition, the NACUSA Young Composers Competition, and more.
Hindman has been awarded artist residencies from the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Seaside Escape to Create, Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome, the Visby International Centre for Composers, and Composer-in-Residence for the Goliard Ensemble.
Hindman’s music appears on fifteen CDs. Her engineer/producer credits include three award winning and critically acclaimed monograph CDs Blow by Blow (innova 010), Tightly Wound (innova 965) and Tapping the Furnace (innova 878). Kulturni Magazin UNI raves, “Hindman offers extraordinary glimpses into interesting topics, concepts of modernity and structured complexity. … for many listeners the composer’s first CD Tapping the Furnace represents a remarkable discovery.” Other recordings include Albany’s Frost Symphony Live (2018), and the title track on Corona Guitar Kvartet’s Taut (2015). Of her most recent release on Eunmi Ko/CAMP’s 12 Views on Life (Neuma 2024), amplified-mag.de writes, “A highlight of the album is Dorothy Hindman’s “Untitled VI”, a twelve-minute epic that impresses with its dynamic range and deep emotionality.” Hindman’s music also appears on the Capstone, EMM, and Living Artist labels. Her scores are available through Universal Edition, Subito Music, NoteNova, and Groth Music.
A tumultuous, unstable, often dangerous youth fuels much of Hindman’s music, but has also energized decades of volunteerism and advocacy, especially in new music. In her early career she co-edited the Living Music Journal, and co-founded the Birmingham Art Music Alliance, now in its 30th year, securing grant support and co-producing annual series of new music by Alabama composers. A devoted educator since 1994, Hindman’s beginning music theory course at Birmingham-Southern College paired college students with underprivileged 5th graders to collaborate, write and perform their own youth operas. From 2011-2015, she wrote, produced and broadcast the weekly Po Mo Show on WVUM, 90.5FM Coral Gables, promoting living composers and new music written since 1980. From 2011-2014, she was a music critic for the Miami Herald and South Florida Classical Review, often documenting important world and US premieres. In 2019-20, she launched and curated the Justly Tuned concert series under the auspices of FETA (Foundation for Emerging Technologies and the Arts), exploring music as communication, commentary, and catalyst for change. A current Faculty Senate Vice Chair, Hindman currently advocates on behalf of faculty issues at the University of Miami.
Hindman earned her D.M.A. in Music Composition from the University of Miami, and a Master of Arts from Duke University. From 1994-2010, she was a tenured professor at Birmingham-Southern College. In 2012, Hindman joined the faculty at the Frost School of Music, where she currently serves as Associate Professor of Composition. Guest faculty appearances include the Charlotte New Music Festival, the Summer Composition Intensive at St. Mary’s College, the Miami International Piano Festival Academy, and the AmiCa Credenze POP Festival in Sicily. dorothyhindman.com