Hilary Tann *81

Composer and professor of music Hilary died Feb. 8, 2023, in Schuylerville, N.Y.

Born Nov. 11, 1947, in a coal-mining village in South Wales, Hilary received her undergraduate degree in musical composition from the University of Wales at Cardiff and earned a Ph.D. from Princeton in 1981. She joined the faculty of Union College in 1980, bringing a compositional bent to a department she chaired for 15 years. She retired in 2019 as the John Howard Payne Professor of Music Emerita.

With 60 CDs to her credit, Hilary’s music has been performed worldwide, from Bangkok and Beijing to Cardiff and across the United States. She was commissioned by festivals, ensembles, and artists as varied as the North American Welsh Choir, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Empire State Youth Orchestra, and pianist Max Lifchitz.

Inspired by nature and its scenery, Hilary’s works include orchestral pieces with titles such as “Adirondack Light,” “The Open Field,” and “Through the Echoing Timber.”

Union credits Hilary for her important role in the creation of the college’s Taylor Music Center, a 14,000-square-foot facility that includes a 120-seat recital hall, Emerson Auditorium. It opened in 2006.

Hilary is survived by her husband, David Bullard.

Graduate alumni memorials are prepared 
by the APGA.