In memorial - James Sellars

James Edward Sellars, the imaginative and original composer, outspoken commentator on music and art, and demanding but inspiring teacher of hundreds of students at The Hartt School, University of Hartford, died at his Hartford home on February 26, 2017. He was 76. In the last years of his life, he suffered from a degenerative nerve disease, which left him increasingly immobile and unable to read or listen to music, though he retained his incisive and sometimes cutting wit to the end.

Sellars was born at the Sparks Memorial Hospital in Fort Smith Arkansas on October 8, 1940 to Wayne Edward Sellars and Omah Dodson Sellars. Known as "Buddy" to his friends and family until he was in his thirties, he was drawn to music at an early age. He remembered Beethoven's Fur Elise as an early favorite. When his father took him as a boy to a record store to buy his first record of classical music, he asked the clerk for something sad - the clerk recommended the Pathetique Symphony by Tchaikovsky, who remained a favorite composer of his for the rest of his life. In Fort Smith he studied piano with Ester Graham who recognized his musical talent and recommended that he study music composition.

After high school, he moved to New York City. He first attended Julliard but quickly switched to the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Ludmila Ulehla and David Diamond. During the 1960's he lived with his life partner Gary Knoble in Brooklyn Heights where, in addition to his musical studies, he was music critic for the Brooklyn Heights Press, choral director of the First Unitarian Congregation Society, and owner of a photographic studio on Montague Street. He took a Masters Degree in Music at Southern Methodist University and a PhD in Composition and Theory at the University of North Texas.

In memorial - Joan Glazier

Joan Leopold Glazier was an icon to generations of The Hartt School family.
She passed away peacefully at her home Saturday, March 25, 2017.

 The Daughter of Kurt A. and Henriette Leopold, Joan was born on November 4, 1935 in Brooklyn, New York and resided in West Hartford, CT. for much of her life.

 Joan was a graduate of Hall High School, class of 1953 and attended the University of Connecticut and The Hartt School (then Hartt College) receiving her Bachelor of Music Education in 1958.
A noted performer for over 50 years, Joan was a soloist with the Hartford Symphony and had leading roles in opera productions with the Hartt Opera Theater and the Connecticut Opera Association. She also performed with the Chamber Song Ensemble, summer stock music theater and appeared in concerts on radio and television. She was church soloist for 23 years, and sang in the Emanuel Synagogue High Holiday choir.
 
In addition to her performing career, Joan was member of the voice faculty of the Hartt School at The University of Hartford from 1964 until 2000, and also served as their academic advisor/evaluator for undergraduate studies from 1980 until her retirement. Joan was a devoted and beloved teacher and mentor at Hartt for decades and is fondly remembered as "Mother Glazier". Her legacy and voice will live on in all of her students.