Hilary Purrington, b. 1990
Daylights is a short piece about color, vision, and perception. It opens with a simple melody, sung out by a solo flute. Throughout the work, this versatile and memorable tune reappears in various guises. Passages of emotive lyricism tumble into moments of playful, sparkling levity. With each appearance, the melody takes on different colors and dispositions, allowing a listener to hear it from a different perspective.
When I began composing this piece, I knew I wanted to create moments that capture the sensation of staring into a brilliant light. The word “daylights,” most often found as part of the phrase “the living daylights,” is an archaic idiom referring to an individual’s eyes or consciousness. The title takes on many meanings—eyes, personal awareness and perception, and daylight.
Daylights was commissioned by the New York Youth Symphony and premiered in November 2017 at Carnegie Hall. (source:hilarypurrington.com)
About Hilary Purrington
Hilary Purrington is a living composer of chamber, vocal, and orchestral music. Her work has received recognition from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP); the International Alliance for Women in Music; and the National Federation of Music Clubs (NFMC), among others.
Purrington’s orchestral and chamber works have been performed by many distinguished ensembles, including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, American Modern Ensemble, and the Chicago Harp Quartet. Her orchestral work Likely Pictures in Haphazard Sky, premiered by the Yale Philharmonia, has been read by the Philadelphia and American Composers Orchestras and performed by the Minnesota Orchestra and the Phoenix Symphony, among many others. Recent commissions include new works for the New York Youth Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra. For the 2018–19 season, Purrington was named the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra’s Composer of the Year and served as composer-in-residence for the Musical Chairs Chamber Ensemble. She is a 2020 recipient of an orchestral commission from the League of American Orchestra’s Women Composers Readings and Commissions program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Purrington has also composed several works for dance. In 2018, the Albany Symphony commissioned Patterns, a new work for chamber orchestra. Inspired by the life of fashion arbiter Ellen Louise Demorest, the piece featured the Albany Berkshire Ballet with choreography by Mary Talmi. Purrington also participated in Periapsis Music and Dance’s Emerging Artist Residencies and created a new work with choreographer Annalee Traylor, which premiered in May 2019. While attending The Juilliard School, Purrington collaborated with choreographer Stephanie Terasaki to create a new work for brass quartet and dance.
Also an accomplished vocalist, Purrington has developed a reputation as a skilled composer of solo and choral music. Her song For your judicious and pious consideration was premiered by mezzo-soprano Adele Grabowsky on the 2016 NY Phil Biennial’s New Music New Haven concert. In 2015, the Eric Stokes Fund commissioned Purrington to compose a new song cycle about the devastating effects of climate change. The resulting work, A Clarion Call, was premiered at the 2017 Conference for Ecology and Religion hosted by the Yale Divinity School. Recent vocal commissions include new works for the Melodia Women’s Choir of NYC, Yale Glee Club, Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, and C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective. She recently completed a new opera for New Camerata Opera, created in collaboration with librettist Hannah McDermott and animation studio Catarata. In 2022, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke’s album how do i find you, which includes Purrington’s art song That Night, received a GRAMMY nomination for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Most recently, Purrington’s treble choir work Stars like goldfish won the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus 2023 Competition for Young Composers.
A versatile collaborator, Purrington worked with children’s author Mo Willems to compose an original piece that appeared in the book Because (Hyperion Books for Children, 2019). Illustrated by artist Amber Ren, Because tells the story of a young girl who devotes herself to studying music and grows up to become a professional conductor and composer. The book reached The New York Times’ Best-Seller List and continues to charm and inspire young readers across the world.
Originally from western Massachusetts, Purrington lives and works in New Orleans, Louisiana. She holds degrees from the Yale School of Music, The Juilliard School, and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. (source:hilarypurrington.com)