Hilary TANN

Hilary Tann’s childhood was spent in the coal-mining valleys of South Wales. Her home in Ferndale, Rhondda, has inspired her music and her poetry. The titles of her music reflect her love for the mountains of Wales – "With the Heather and Small Birds" for the European Women’s Orchestra, and "The Grey Tide and the Green" for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Other titles reflect her attachment to the countryside of her adopted home in the United States – "Fanfare For a River" for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, "Adirondack Light" for the Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra.

Hilary Tann is a member of the music faculty of the Performing Arts Department of Union College in Schenectady, NY. She lives with her husband, David Bullard, and collie dog southeast of the Adirondack Mountains on the banks of the Hudson next to Lock 5 of the Champlain Canal.

Her interest in haiku developed during the 1990s when she joined the Shiki list and was welcomed as part of the larger haiku community. At present she is most active as a founding member of the Route 9 Haiku Group which publishes the biannual journal, Upstate Dim Sum. The monthly meetings with Yu Chang, Tom Clausen, and John Stevenson are treasured times of poetry and sharing. Her work also appears in Frogpond, The Heron’s Nest, and various anthologies. As a composer (for Oxford University Press since 1989) her work is of necessity forward-looking, shaping different futures. Her enjoyment in reading and writing haiku stems in no small part from the fact that haiku train her once more to be "of the moment." Visit her website at: http://www.hilarytann.com/ . for more information on her musical compositions.