Adolphus Hailstork is an American composer born in Rochester, NY who grew up in Albany New York, where he studied violin, piano, organ, and voice. He currently resides in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Adolphus Hailstork received his doctorate in composition from Michigan State University, where he was a student of H. Owen Reed.  He had previously studied at the Manhattan School of Music, under Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond, at the American Institute at Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger, and at Howard University with Mark Fax. Dr. Hailstork is Professor of Music and Eminent Scholar at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.

Dr. Hailstork has written numerous works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, various chamber ensembles, band, orchestra, and opera. Significant performances by major orchestras (Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York) have been led by leading conductors such as James de Priest, Paul Freeman, Daniel Barenboim, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Jo Ann Falletta and David Lockington. Thomas Wilkins conducted Hailstork’s An American Port of Call with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Rei Hotoda and the Fresno Philharmonic have performed Hailstork’s To Those Who Serve and An American Fanfare.   

Originally composed for solo organ, Hailstork’s Fanfare on Amazing Grace is a 3½-minute explosion of joyous sound inspired by the Baroque-era tradition of chorale preludes. As in Bach’s organ preludes, the familiar hymn’s phrases broadly emerge from ornate counterpoint. Also scored by Hailstork for chamber ensemble and for orchestra, Fanfare on Amazing Grace was transcribed for concert band in January 2021 by “The President’s Own” United States Military Band, for that ensemble’s worldwide broadcast performance at the 2021 Presidential Inauguration.