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Hultberg, Cortland
Cortland Hultberg. Conductor, teacher, composer, b Chicago 5 Sep 1931, d White Rock, BC, 3 Jan 2002; B SC music education (Northern Illinois) 1953, M SC music education (Illinois) 1954, M MUS (Arizona) 1958. He made his conducting debut in Chicago in 1948 and conducted army choirs during the mid-1950s. He studied pedagogy 1953-4 at the University of Northern Illinois and (on a GI Bill grant) composition 1956-8 with Robert McBride and Andrew Buchhauser at the University of Arizona, where he also taught. After teaching in Tombstone, Arizona, for a year, in 1959 he emigrated to Canada and taught at the University of British Columbia. He was made director of the university's Electronic Music Studio in 1965 and professor of theory and composition 1970-93. He founded and conducted the University of British Columbia Chamber Singers and the chamber choir Phoenix1983-95.
Hultberg's compositions include Fog (which is frequently sung in public schools) and 3 Songs for choir, music for the play Oedipus Rex 1974-5 which uses and manipulates taped sounds, and a Concerto Grosso for flute, oboe, two horns, bassoon, and orchestra. He also arranged several pieces for choir, including Quenten Doolittle's Hornby Island Suite (Offering, Hornby Festival Records, HFR 9301-CD, 1992). Hultberg recorded on CRI and Angel with the chamber singers and the Little Mountain Singers, and conducted Phoenix for several recordings in the 1990s. His pupils included Lloyd Burritt, Errol Gay, Peter Huse, David Keeble, Claire Lawrence, Alexina Louie, Ramona Luengen (who became director of Phoenix in 1995), and Barry Truax. Hultberg frequently acted as an adjudicator and choral clinician. He was the recipient of the University of British Columbia's Master Teacher Award, nominated by his students.
See also Discography for the Phoenix Chamber Choir.
Writings
"Harold Brook Porter: An integrated course in music literature, theory, and ensemble performance for talented high school students," Current Musicology 4, 1966
'Music education in British Columbia,' Music Education and the Canadians of Tomorrow (CMCouncil 1968)
'The role of the electronic music studio in university music programs,' CAUSM J, vol 1, Spring 1971
