A native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Sydney Hodkinson received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Eastman and continued his studies at the Princeton Seminars. He received his doctor of musical arts degree from the University of Michigan in 1968. Before returning to Eastman as a faculty member in 1973, Dr. Hodkinson taught at the universities of Virginia, Ohio, and Michigan, as well as serving as artist-in-residence in Minneapolis through a grant from the Ford Foundation Contemporary Music Project. Dr. Hodkinson also was visiting professor at Southern Methodist University from 1984 to 1986, and at the University of Western Ontario in 1991. Dr. Hodkinson studied with such notable composers as Louis Mennini, Bernard Rogers, Elliott Carter, Milton Babbitt, Roger Sessions, Leslie Bassett, Niccolo Castiglioni, Ross Lee Finney, and George B. Wilson. His first duties on the Eastman faculty were to conduct the Musica Nova ensemble and the Kilbourn Orchestra. Eventually, in addition to serving as chair of the conducting and ensembles department, he became a professor of composition in 1995. Among his many compositions are Tilt, an overture for orchestra commissioned by the Rochester Philharmonic for its 75th anniversary, and his String Quartet No. 3, commissioned by the Ying, Lafayette, and Cassatt String Quartets and funded by the Reader’s Digest/Meet the Composer Project. In addition to the Ford Foundation grant, Dr. Hodkinson has received awards from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, Guggenheim Foundation, Canada Council, National Endowment for the Arts, International Congress of Jeunesses Musicales, Louisville Orchestra, and Danforth Foundation. Upon his retirement from Eastman in January 1999, Dr. Hodkinson was named Professor Emeritus of conducting and ensembles.
Eastman School of Music
