Hugh Aitken


Hugh Aitken was a 20th-century American composer.

Biography

Aitken was born in New York City to Hugh Aitken Sr. and Florence Aitken. He grew up in the Bronx and attended Evander Child High School. There were artists of all kinds in his family; his father was a musician, playing the violin and also composing, his mother danced in vaudeville in her youth, one cousin was a radio, stage, and television actress and another danced in the Balanchine company. He studied chemistry for two years at New York University, but quit to join the Army. He served as a navigator in the Air Force in the Second World War, realized during the War that composing was his true vocation, so he used the GI Bill to enroll at Juilliard from 1946-50. He studied composition under Bernard Wagenaar, Vincent Persichetti, and Robert Ward, receiving a MS degree in 1950. He married Laura Tapia in 1946. Aitken taught at Juilliard from 1960 until 1970, and was then appointed Professor of Music at William Paterson College in New Jersey. He died at home in Oakland, New Jersey on Dec. 24, 2012. He is survived by children Peter Gil Aitken and Alexandra Elizabeth Aitken.
He received commissions from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation, the Naumburg Foundation, the Juilliard School, the Concord String Quartet, Yoyo Ma/Emmanuel Ax, and the dancer José Limón.

Major works

Stage works