Jacquelyn Hazle

Jacquelyn is a composer whose works and writing style rarely conform to a single category. Whether she writes for small chamber groups, vocal airs, large choirs, or orchestra, she’s equally given to use flowing melodicism, strikingly assertive motifs, and colorful, atmospheric textures. She has written numerous technical, experimental solos ranging from her Toccata for clarinet (2018) to her dynamic piano suite, Raptae (2020). Jacquelyn is passionate about new music performance for any and all musical backgrounds and levels. In 2019 and 2020, she composed two new works for school concert band, Five Musical Snapshots of Salt and All for Serendipity. She is fascinated with the stories and lives of people, finding little humanities in the simple and unassuming. Her piece Does wax not soon cool? for tenor and piano (2021) is a raw and emotional appeal for a certainty of hope during the pandemic, while The Innominate Anamnesis for orchestra (2018) discretely follows an anonymous individual’s tale piecing together fractured musical motifs, building them into the full image. She also likes to take musical inspiration from visuals, images, or narratives from the natural world. In 2019, she wrote her clarinet trio Scars, black and green, inspired by a disasterous fire that hit California in 2017. Sometimes, it’s the abstract or absurd that unveils in Jacquelyn’s music through works such as her quartet for vibraphone, marimba, violin, and piano titled Kenosis (2020), her latest orchestra piece Genesis (2020) or Nebula Flow for three clarinets (2017).

Jacquelyn comes from Boston, Massachusetts, USA where she resided for six years and received her formal musical education. She studied composition at Tufts University under John McDonald and Kareem Roustom and at Berklee College of Music under Gabriele Vanoni. In addition to composition, Jacquelyn has studied and performed as a clarinetist and a soprano. She was born and raised in a small beach city in Southern California, USA. Jacquelyn is currently based in Glasgow.

Recently, she curated a full-length concert of her new works during which she debuted her prototype of an innovative, new vocal form. In 2020 and 2021, she conducted her piece Kenosis (2020) for mixed quartet. In 2019, she was commissioned by the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary to compose a new work for middle school band commemorating the legacy of the humpback whale population in Scituate, Massachusetts, USA. She also sang the premiere of her solo vocal piece, I am the cheese (2019). In 2018, she was a winner of Berklee College of Music’s Contemporary Compositions Award for her piano trio A Thing We All Seek (2018).

Jacquelyn’s research focuses on the role of intentionality in the composition practice. Her practice-based work invesitgates music's capacity for intentionality, observing how music's 'aboutness' might influence a composer and vice versa. Additional research interests include philosopho-theological composition methods, Catholicity in composition, multilingualism, vocal music, new or alternative approaches to text, musical form, listening, and performance practices.