Richard Hundley

Richard Hundley (b. 1931) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and even as a child he would make up songs. While in high school he began taking piano lessons at the Cincinnati Conservatory, and at age 16 he performed as a piano soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony. He moved to New York City in 1950 to continue his studies at the Manhattan School of Music, but these were cut short due to financial hardships. But in 1960, Hundley joined the chorus of the Metropolitan Opera, and it was during his four-year tenure there that he began to gain recognition as a composer, especially when several of the Met's star singers, including Anna Moffo and Rosalind Elias, performed some of his songs in recitals. Today he is considered one of America's leading composers of art songs, touted by the journal Musical America (May, 1991) as "... a sort of American Poulenc, expert at creating characterful melodies and illuminating their corners with flashes of harmonic surprise," and he remains a favored composer of such international luminaries as Renee Fleming and Frederica Von Stade.