In his music, composer Dayton Hare strikes a balance between lyricism and color, narrative and atmosphere. Often drawing inspiration from the natural world, Dayton hopes to raise questions about our relationship to our environment and elevate underappreciated beauty found around us. He has received fellowships from the Fulbright Program, the National Orchestral Institute + Festival, the Conservatoire américain de Fontainebleau, and the Norfolk New Music Workshop, and his work has been performed by Bent Frequency, Mammoth Trio, the Yale Percussion Group, Utari Duo, and others. Upcoming projects include commissions for the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and Yale Planetary Solutions Climate Week. Originally from Boulder, Colorado, Dayton received a master’s of music from the Yale School of Music, and bachelor’s degrees in music composition and English literature from the University of Michigan. During the 2024–25 year, he will take up residence at the Fondation des États-Unis in Paris as the recipient of the Fulbright-Harriet Hale Woolley Award in the Arts, where he will compose music that engages with the city’s climate change mitigation efforts.
Estuary– (2023) 9'orchestra Premiered 7 December 2023 Woolsey Hall, New Haven, CT |
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Pressure System– (2023) 11'sinfonietta Premiered 30 June 2023 The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, MD |
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Vanishing Point– (2019-2020) 7'orchestra Premiered 19 February 2020 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, MI |
butterfly effects– (2023) 8'string quartet Premiered 5 October 2023 Sprague Recital Hall, New Haven, CT |
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Fits and Starts– (2023) 6'violin, percussion quartet Premiered 9 February 2023 Sprague Recital Hall, New Haven, CT |
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An object of some concern– (2021) 10'piano trio Premiered 2 July 2021 New Haven, CT (Virtual Event) |
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The Nature of Entropy– (2019) 45'percussion quartet Premiered 13 April 2019 Hankinson Recital Hall, Ann Arbor, MI |
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Isolation of sky at evening– (2018) 9'scordatura string quartet Premiered 28 April 2019 Kevreson Recital Hall, Ann Arbor, MI |
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Architecture of Silence– (2017) 10'violin, bassoon, percussion, piano Premiered 4 March 2018 Hankinson Recital Hall, Ann Arbor, MI |
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still life: desert rain– (2016) 5'string quartet Premiered 25 March 2017 Kevreson Recital Hall, Ann Arbor, MI |
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Seven Vignettes– (2015) 9'30''flute, two violins, viola, cello Premiered 9 August 2015 Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Lenox, MA |
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Monadnock– (2014) 4'saxophone ensemble Premiered 24 April 2015 New Winston Museum, Winston-Salem, NC |
kaleidoscopic harmonic– (2024) 8'violin duet Premiered 18 April 2024 Sprague Hall, New Haven, CT |
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A blue heron alights on the riverbank near dawn– (2023) 10'cello, piano Premiered 9 March 2023 Sprague Hall, New Haven, CT |
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A light dusting of snow– (2023) 10'marimba, vibraphone, fixed media Premiered 29 March 2023 Illinois State University, Normal, IL |
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First light, a bird is singing– (2019) 5'viola Premiered 14 August 2019 Chiesa di Santa Maria di Canepanova, Pavia, Italy |
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Sometimes, the rain– (2018) 5'30''violin, piano Premiered 17 June 2018 Salisbury Congregational Church, Salisbury, VT |
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Prelude, Fugue, and Lamento– (2015) 9'cello Premiered 2 April 2016 Britton Recital Hall, Ann Arbor, MI |
Na Fataí Bána– (2020) 4'tenor voice Premiered 14 July 2021 Château de Fontainebleau, Île-de-France |
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how the sky looked– (2017) 5'baritone voice, violin, cello, oboe Premiered 15 March 2017 Stamps Auditorium, Ann Arbor, MI |
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Upon All– (2014) 20'mezzo-soprano, tenor, piano Premiered 24 January 2015 Watson Recital Hall, Winston-Salem, NC |
Dayton’s writing includes a variety of journalism, music and literary criticism, and short nonfiction. His works have appeared in The Michigan Daily and PULP: Arts Around Ann Arbor. His honors English thesis was on the subject of the Algerian War in the late works of Samuel Beckett, which won The John Wagner/Ralph Williams Award for Outstanding Thesis.
