About Carolyn Hawley
A graduate of the East Bay's prestigious Mills College with a BA and MA in music, Carolyn Hawley was a student of famed composer Darius MiIhaud and spent much of her career as a music professor at a number of Bay Area colleges. Along with raising two children she managed to spend ten years as founder and conductor of the Ukiah Symphony Orchestra. She also has written over 100 original compositions for all combinations of voice and instruments, including two major large works for orchestra and chorus. She has been a recipient of numerous awards, including a Fellowship in Music from Mills and a Fullbright scholarship. As both a performer and composer she has won wide acclaim. Milhaud saluted her as "a gifted composer and pianist and a serious musician" while critic Andrew Imbrie called her string trio "one of the most outstanding compositions of the contemporary music festival in San Francisco."
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Carolyn was born in Indiana, but by age 16 had lived in 16 different states before graduating from high school in LaCrosse, Wisconsin and Hamline University in Minnesota. She came to California on the Mills College Fellowship and never left, spending the next ten years in Berkeley. Although now retired and living in the hills of Lake County she keeps busy teaching private piano lessons, playing solo concerts and also serving as pianist for the local Lakeside Players musical group. But her interests are not confined just to music - she is also a published author and a fine artist, working primarily in oils.