Sean Hickey
Biography Sean Hickey
Sean Hickey
born in Detroit, Michigan in 1970, Sean Hickey’s earliest music education began at age 12 with an electric guitar, a Peavey amp, and a stack of Van Halen records, the early ones of course. He studied jazz guitar at Oakland University, later graduating with a degree in composition and theory from Wayne State University. His primary instructors were James Hartway, James Lentini and Leslie Bassett.
Since moving to New York, Sean has pursued further studies with Justin Dello Joio and Gloria Coates. His works include symphonies, concertos for clarinet and cello, two string trios, a string quartet, a flute sonata, a woodwind quintet and trio, several pieces for solo instruments, church as well as orchestral music. He has also composed a film score, and composed the music for a children’s play, the latter of which received over 80 performances. Sean is also active as an arranger, contributing arrangements for various artists and ensembles in the pop and jazz music spheres.
2003 was a busy year with performances of his piano music at New York’s Weill Hall in addition to the first concert dedicated entirely to his chamber and solo music, at CAMI Hall. In 2004, Hickey was awarded a grant from the New York Department of Cultural Affairs as well as a Composer Assistance Grant from the American Music Center to mount concerts of his work. He has fulfilled commissions for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the St. Petersburg Symphony, New York’s One World Symphony and North/South Consonance, the Adesso Choral Society in Connecticut, the Spain-based piano/accordion duo An-Tifon, 60x60, and the Gringolts-Weiss-Fiterstein Trio. His disc of chamber and orchestral works for Naxos American Classics, Left at the Fork in the Road, released in November 2005, broke the Billboard Top 100 Classical Chart. It is available wherever records and downloads are sold.
His principal instruments are guitar and piano. Other commissions include works for cellist Dmitry Kouzov, pianist Xiayin Wang, clarinetist David Gould, violinist Ilya Gringolts, flutist Stefan Hoskuldsson, mandolinist Avi Avital, and for the ensembles Ars Futura and Pearls Before Swine. His works have been featured at the Cabrillo and Bridgehampton Chamber Music festivals. He is a recipient of eight consecutive ASCAP awards and was named a semi-finalist in the Auros 2001-2002 Composition Competition, also winning second prize in the 1990 State Awards in the former Yugoslavia. The past two years have seen performances in New York, San Francisco, Detroit, Washington, Russia, Spain, Portugal, England, Ireland, Indonesia and Brazil. He is an ASCAP member and is currently composer-in-residence with the Metro Chamber Orchestra in New York. His works are published by Cantabile Publishing and Wolfhead Music. Several of his recording and concert reviews may be found in the pages of the New Music Connoisseur, 21st Century Music, Modern Dance and numerous other publications. He is also a principal contributor to the Omnibus Guide to Classical Music on CD, has contributed liner notes to dozens of classical recordings and is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
His travel and adventure pieces have appeared in Transitions Abroad, the Burlington Free Press, Trailworks, Trailsource, Orlando Weekly, ITN, Babylon Travel and elsewhere. Otra Dia, a travelogue of the writer’s travels in Peru, was published by Cantabile Press. He also lectures extensively on career options and marketing strategy for composers.
