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Hammond Remembered for His Excellence, Talent
Michael Hammond, a composer and visionary leader who took Rice’s
Shepherd School of Music to new levels of professionalism, died
from complications of cancer on January 29. He was 69 years old.
His death came just one week after he assumed office as the eighth
chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
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In a statement to the campus community on the day of Hammond’s
death, President Malcolm Gillis said, “Michael Hammond leaves
a family and a university permanently enriched by his vision, strength
of character, integrity, and indomitable spirit. If Rice University
is a living monument to William Marsh Rice and Edgar Odell Lovett,
the Shepherd School of Music is so also for Michael Hammond.”
Hammond recently said his two great love affairs were his wife,
Anne Lilley Hammond, and the Shepherd School. Though reluctant to
leave Rice, he felt it was his patriotic duty to serve his country
by chairing the NEA, said Anne Schnoebelen, the interim dean of
the music school and the Joseph and Ida Kirkland Mullen Professor
of Music. “Michael’s contributions are immeasurable and
will never be forgotten. We have lost an inspiring leader and a
dear friend,” she said, adding that Hammond was known for his
wisdom, creativity, humor, quiet spirituality, and guidance.
Hammond rose to head the NEA following an illustrious career in
academia, arts, and music. “Michael Hammond was an accomplished
conductor, composer, and advocate of the arts,” said President
Bush, who in September nominated Hammond to head the NEA. “His
commitment to excellence and his extraordinary talents will be greatly
missed.” After his unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate,
Hammond promised to be an advocate for policies that would benefit
children and help them understand and participate in the arts.
Hammond, who became dean of the Shepherd School in 1986, was widely
regarded as a Renaissance man. “Michael Hammond was truly sui
generis,” said Gillis. “Wherever he went, he left in his
wake a higher level of intellectual as well as artistic discourse.
For my part, I will remember Michael as a person of strong conviction
well expressed, a person as much at ease with Mozart as with classical
physics and the classics of Virgil and Homer.”
During his tenure, Hammond assembled a talented faculty, strengthened
cross-campus academic ties, expanded the school’s international
recognition, and brought Rice’s music standards to a higher
level. He wrote the architectural program for the music building,
Alice Pratt Brown Hall, which was designed by Ricardo Bofill and
opened in 1991. Hammond also founded a preparatory program for pre-college-age
music students in the Houston area. “We were so fortunate to
have had him for 16 years and to have been the beneficiary of his
extraordinary intellect, vision, and compassion,” said Gary
Smith, associate dean of music.
Hammond was educated at Lawrence University, Delhi University in
India, and as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he earned
degrees in philosophy, psychology, and physiology. At Oxford, he
became involved in neuroscientific research and later taught and
conducted research in neuroanatomy and physiology at Marquette Medical
School and at the University of Wisconsin Medical School.
His love for music won over his desire to study medicine, but he
continued to tap into his neuroscientific expertise. He developed
ties with the medical community to study voice, hearing, and clinical
aspects of musical performance, and he lectured annually at the
Texas Medical Center in the series “Health Care and the Arts.”
He also played a major role in specifying the acoustics for every
room in Alice Pratt Brown Hall, a building often praised for its
splendid acoustics.
Before coming to Rice, Hammond was the founding dean of music for
the new arts campus of the State University of New York at Purchase.
There he was responsible for planning the facilities and curriculum
of the music school and later served as president of the college.
He founded Pepsico Summerfare, a major international festival of
the arts at Purchase. He also was director of the Wisconsin Conservatory
of Music in Milwaukee and served as the founding rector of the European
Mozart Academy in the Czech Republic.
In addition to being on the board of the Houston Symphony, Hammond
held positions as associate conductor of the American Symphony,
conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic, musical director and conductor
of the Dessoff Choirs in New York City, composer-in-residence for
the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and director of Canticum, an ensemble
for the performance of medieval and Renaissance vocal music.
Hammond received a gold medal in 1998 from the Rice Alumni Association
for his contributions to Rice, and Lawrence University awarded him
a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.
Hammond is survived by his wife and a son, Thomas Hammond of New
York. He was proceeded in death by another son, Benjamin Michael
Hammond.
—Ellen Chang
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