Hunter Hensley is Professor of Music at Eastern Kentucky University. He received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in vocal performance from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in 1995. His undergraduate and masters degrees in music education are from the University of Kentucky. He came to teach at Eastern in the Fall semester of 2000. Earlier in his career he was an Army Bandsman during the Viet Nam era, followed by a period as a church musician, an adjunct instructor at various colleges and universities in Kentucky, and Chair of the Fine Arts Department at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee.
Hensley's focus on early music led him to research and study of the performance practice of 9th c. Gregorian chant. This study has led to participation in a recording project called A Gregorian Archive – recording melodies of the 9th c. Carolingian repertory commonly known as Gregorian chant. This ongoing project began in June of 2003, with Dr. Richard L. Crocker, Professor Emeritus at The University of California at Berkeley and author of the Archive of Sound Recordings, produced by Emeritus Press, Berkeley, CA.
Hensley’s recordings of Gregorian chant (numbering almost 100 chant melodies of the 500 included in the archive), for A Gregorian Archive: a study edition on compact disc, produced by Richard Crocker, are available from Emeritus Press, Berkeley, CA:
on RGC 39011, Offertory chants in mode 7
on RGC 39013, Offertory chants in mode 5
on RGC 39015, Alleluia chants in mode 2 and in mode 8
Taped and in production for (2008):
Communion chants in mode 1
Communion chants in mode 5
Communion chants in mode 7
Alleluia chants in mode 7
Trouvère Songs s. XIII; RGC 39030 (2008)
1. Or ai je trop
2. Bone amourette
3. Quant plu loig
4. En non Dieu
Study continues with Richard Crocker on his development program for the performance of medieval music. The present phase of the project is medieval song, with an immediate goal of providing Prof. Judith Peraino, Cornell University, with examples for her book on medieval song (in progress). A related phase is working with internationally known Shira Kammen, medieval vielle player, on the development of accompaniments to medieval song.
Active research in 17th c. music performance practice continues in 2008 at the behest of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities of the Italian government. Hensley’s modern performance editions will be included in the 42 volume Italian National Edition of Alessandro Stradella, Opera Omnia – Solo Cantatas for the Male Voice – Modern Performance Editions with Critical Notes. Series I Cantate: vol tba, is in preparation. Scheduled for publication by ETS Editions, Pisa. Hensley hopes to complete the work during his planned 2010 sabbatical leave.
Hunter Hensley and Gregory Partain collaborated on the Schubert song cycle, Die Schöne Müllerin, in a nine-performance recital tour in Kentucky and Ohio, in the Fall of 2007.
Hensley has performed as a recitalist, soloist, and member of Musick’s Company, the performing arm of Lexington’s Center for Old Music in the New World, under the direction of Donna Boyd. With Donna Boyd on harpsichord and Bob Rynierson on lute and theorbo, he performed at the Eastern Kentucky University Live @ Your Library: An Evening of Airs de Cour. The program included sets of French Airs de Cour, English lute songs, and Italian spensieratezzi. In 2005, he performed in a program of Airs de Cour in Chicago at the National Conference of 17th Century Musicians with internationally renowned artists Elizabeth Belgrano, soprano, David Dolata, theorbo, and Katherine Gordan-Seifert, harpsichord.
Hunter’s career as a music educator began at UK as a tuba player under the guidance of Rex Conner. In his early days as a church musician in Lexington, he was assistant conductor of the Lexington Singers under Phyllis Jenness. He also performed several leading tenor roles (The Elixir of Love, La Boheme, Hin und Zuruck, The Magic Flute, among others) at the University of Kentucky under the direction of Phillip Miller, Phyllis Jenness, and James W. Rodgers. As choral conductor of the Georgetown College Choral Society, he collaborated with Phillip Miller, conductor of the UK Symphonic Orchestra, for UK’s first performance of the Beethoven 9th Symphony, at the UK Singletary Center for the Arts. As opera chorus master, he collaborated with George Zack, conductor of the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra, in performances at the Lexington Opera House of La Traviata with the New York City Eastern Opera Company. He has also conducted the Knoxville Chamber Orchestra in performances of Bach’s Magnificat, Handel’s Messiah, and Purcell’s Come Ye Sons of Art, with the LMU Tri-State Chorus. Most recently, Hensley directed a performance of the Palestrina Pope Marcellus Mass, a six voice a cappella mass, with the Eastern Kentucky University Singers, who were invited to sing at the Abby of Gethsemane, in Trappist, KY.
EKU Department of Music Homepage
Department of Music
Faculty & Staff Page
EKU Homepage
College Homepage
Directory of Colleges