An Analytical and Educational Survey of Howard Hanson's Dies ...

11Promotion ofAmerican MusicHanson made significant contributions to the Eastman School of Music, the windmusic community, and to music education through his advocacy and promotion ofAmerican music. Principal among these contributions was the foundation of theAmerican Composers' Concerts, Festival of American Music, and Symposia of AmericanMusic. Recordings from all three concert settings were regularly broadcasted overnational public radio for years.Hanson organized the American Composers' Concerts in 1925 as a way ofdiscovering and fostering new composing talent and as an opportunity for Americancomposers to hear their works performed by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra(Cohen, 2004). In 1936, biannual symposia were implemented as a less formal, additionalsetting for the reading of new American music. The fall symposium was for the readingof new music in multiple genres by composers throughout the United States. The springsymposium was available exclusively for the reading of compositions by students atEastman.The Festival of American Music was founded by Hanson in 1931, the tenthanniversary of the Eastman School of Music, as an annual weeklong concert seriespromoting both new works and previously performed works by American composers.Composers whose works were performed over the course of the festivals included AaronCopland, Roy Harris, Ernst Bacon, Russell Bennett, Elliott Carter, Henry Cowell, PaulCreston, David Diamond, Vittorio Gianinni, Douglas Moore, Burrill Phillips,Wallingford Riegger, Lazare Saminsky, Robert Sanders, Leo Sowerby, William GrantStill, and Randall Thompson (Cohen, 2004). "Almost every well-known American