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Affiliated Faculty

Karlton Hester

Summary of Expertise

Composition, Jazz, African Music, Flute, Saxophone, Interdisciplinary and Trans-cultural Arts

Research Interests

Hester has been the recipient of composer fellowships, grants and commissions from the National Endowment of the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, New England Council of the Arts, Fund for US Artists for International Participation in International Festivals, ASCAP, the William Grant Still Foundation, a Postdoctoral fellowship from the Mellon Foundation, amongst others. His albums and DVDs include 21st-Century Musicism; The Divine Particle Vision, The Fillmore Jazz Preservation Big Band (featuring John Handy and Denise Perrier); Harmonious Soul Scenes 2000; Musicism for the Sake of Love; Hesterian Liberation; Reconstructive Musicism; Karlton Hester and the Contemporary Jazz Art Movement; Hesterian Musicism; Dances Purely for the Sake of Love; Musicism for Your Imagination, Sacred Musicism, and others. His books on music include his most recent publication, Survey of African Music (2011), Exploratory Musicism: Ideas for Spontaneous Composition (2010), Bigotry and the Afrocentric Jazz Evolution, (4th Edition) and The Melodic and Polyrhythmic Development of John Coltrane's Spontaneous Composition in a Racist Society.

Biography, Education and Training

Karlton E. Hester, Ph.D. (composer/flutist/saxophonist), began his career as a composer and recording artist in Los Angeles where he worked as a studio musician and music educator. He received his Ph.D. in composition from the City University of New York Graduate Center and is currently Director of "Jazz" Studies (and member of the Digital Arts and New Media faculty) at the University of California in Santa Cruz. As performer on both flute and saxophone, he is founding music director of the Fillmore Jazz Preservation Big Band (in San Francisco), music director of Hesterian Musicism director of the Fillmore Jazz Preservation Big Band, and served as the Herbert Gussman Director of Jazz Studies at Cornell University from 1991-2001. Hester specializes in premeditated, spontaneous and electro-acoustic composition. His compositions span a wide range; from numerous solo cycles for various woodwinds to chamber configurations, music videos and electro-acoustic symphonic works written in an eclectic array of styles.

Honors, Awards and Grants

American Composers Forum - Subito quick-advancement grant program (San Francisco Chapter)
Arts Division Committee on Research - Special Research Grant.
Arts Research Institute Mini-Grants
Award, “A Special Citation for Outstanding Musicianship,” International Association for Jazz Education
Award, William Grant Still Memorial Commission Project
Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York
Dean David Yager Arts Deans Research fund Arts Dean's Excellence Awards
Dean David Yager Research Grant
Demonstration Project Grant, University of California Institute for Research in the Arts (UCIRA
Diversity Fund Program Grants
Faculty Adviser Award, Porter College
Faculty Research Grants
Fund for U.S. Artists at International Festivals and Exhibitions, Arts International
George and Elza Howard Foundation
Meet the Composer
Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, Cornell University
National Endowment for the Arts
New England Council for the Arts
New Technologies in Teaching Grant
NOVA Award, Staten Island Community Television (CTV)
Online Video Awards - Shockwaves NME Awards 2009 Music
Porter College Porter College Festival Grant and research funds
Regents' Lecturer Funds, Committee on Regents' Professors and Lecturers,
Standard Awards, American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP)
Staten Island Council on the Arts, Staten Island, New York
Staten Island Council on the Arts, Staten Island, New York
UCSC Arts Research & Excellence - Committee on Research (COR FRG)
UCSC Special Research Grant, Academic Senate Committee on Research
VCR Bruce Margon Vice Chancellor of Research’s Excellence fund awarded

Teaching Interests

Composition, Improvisation, Music Theory, Interdisciplinary Arts, Jazz History, African Music