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Theodore Dollarhide (1948-2014) : Represented Artist

Random Audio Sample: Ragings of a one pot screamer (solo piano) by Theodore Dollarhide, from the CD Contemporary Australian piano


Photo of Theodore Dollarhide

Theodore Dollarhide (b. 30 August 1948, Santa Rosa, California; d. 2014). Dr Dollarhide received his B.A. in Music with Honours at San Jose State University (1974) where he studied composition with Higo Harada. His graduate degrees (a Master's degree and a Doctorate) were earned at the University of Michigan under the teaching of Leslie Bassett, George Balch Wilson and William Bolcom. In 1978-79, as a Fulbright Scholar in Paris, he studied with composer Eugene Kurtz.

Dollarhide received much recognition for his large and varied output through commissions, performances, recordings, publications, awards and composer residencies. Major performances included: Other Dreams, Other Dreamers performed by Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Detroit (1986); Madness in Paradise by Elision, Melbourne (1986); Shadows for woodwind quintet, London (1986); The Night Life by Robert Curry, piano, in Seoul (1988).

Theodore Dollarhide's association with the Australian music environment began when he took residence in Melbourne in 1981 after accepting a lectureship at La Trobe University, remaining there until 1989. Through this position he became an important influence on a group of younger Melbourne composers and performers. In particular, his knowledge of new American and European music and his skill as an orchestrator were to offer new directions for a new generation of students at La Trobe University, including Peter Myers and Mark C. Pollard.

Dollarhide's two-year residence as Visiting Professor of Composition at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea (1987-8) also influenced a group of young Korean composers, especially in the area of integrating rhythm into the structure of their music.

As a composer he developed a close working relationship with local Melbourne goups and performers, especially Elision, receiving many commissions and performances. Dollarhide stated that his early works were influenced in the main by the textures and colours asscociated with the music of Penderecki, Crumb and Berio. Faces at the Blue Front (1978) is a good example of a work in this early style. Later works were progressively influenced by the environment in which the composition was written and the unique exploration of the time and pitch continuum found in the music of Elliott Carter and Milton Babbitt. Samul Nori (1988) is a good example of a work from this later period.


Selected Commissions

  Work Commission Details
Digital sheet music sample Madness in paradise : for clarinet, guitar, mandolin, percussion, violin, viola, and c'basse (1986) Commissioned by Elision Ensemble.