James Hegarty has composed numerous works for the stage and concert hall. His opera, The Soul of the Rock, received a National Endowment for the Arts grant for development and performance at New York's Here Theatre Center. He received several regional arts grants for performances and compositions including "Steal Away", a composition for the Elgin (IL) Children's Chorus and Elgin Area Youth Orchestra.

During the spring of 2002, Hegarty appeared on the Bonk Festival of New Music in Tampa Florida with his composition for two laptops and piano entitled "Fred and Victoria." Hegarty's composition "NoiXe" was selected to be performed at the Australasian Computer Music Association Conference in Brisbane, Australia in July, 2000 and the SEAMUS National Conference at Louisiana State University in March, 2001. His "The Cassia Twigs are Fragrant", based on a poem by the early Chinese poet, Wang An-Shih, was performed at the 1999 SEAMUS Conference at San Jose State University.

His computer based compositions incorporate a combination of sources from software synthesis on the Mac (and previously on the NeXT workstation) to live audio processing using MSP. Many of his works involve live performers and multimedia elements such as dance or projected video.

His compositions have been heard in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal, St. Louis, Barcelona, and Brisbane.

For a number of years, Hegarty was active in the Chicago commercial music scene as an arranger and music producer. His clients included McDonald's, Quaker Oats, NYNEX, and Harley Davidson. His arrangements have been performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Pops Orchestra. He was a co-founder of "Gatherings" a new music presenting organization in Chicago.

Hegarty is currently a board member of the New Music Circle and appears frequently on new music concerts in St. Louis. He holds a Master of Music degree in Individualized Study (computer music and 20th century music literature) from Northern Illinois University . He received a Master of Music degree in Composition from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. His Bachelor of Arts in Music degree is from Principia College in Illinois. He is a member of the Phi Kappa Lambda, music honors society. .

Official web site >
www.stlcc.edu/fp/users/jhegarty/

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