The staff of the National Endowment for the Arts found itself in a state of shock and sadness Tuesday as it learned of the death of its new chairman, Dr. Michael P. Hammond.
The 69-year-old Hammond, who had assumed his new post earlier this month, was found dead at his Washington home earlier Tuesday. The death was apparently by natural causes.
"It is a tragic loss for our nation that his tenure has been cut so short," said Mark Weinberg, the NEA's communications director, in a brief statement released that afternoon. "All of us at the NEA had looked forward to his leadership, and we join our colleagues in the arts community in mourning his passing."
Later Tuesday, Weinberg gave Back Stage more details:
"In the past, he had been treated for cancer, but we have no details on that," Weinberg said. "Our most immediate information is that he was not feeling well yesterday, with flu-like symptoms. He stayed home from work as a result. Last evening, he went to a performance of 'The Duchess of Malfi,' but left early because he wasn't feeling well.
"This morning, when he didn't come to work at his usual early hour," Weinberg continued, "and he didn't respond to repeated attempts to reach him by telephone, several staff members went to the home where he was staying. When he didn't respond to knocks on the door, the police were summoned, and they discovered he had passed on, apparently of natural causes."
At press time, a statement was pending from the White House, Weinberg said. He added that it was too early to know who might take the reins as acting chair before President Bush nominates a new chairman.
A composer, conductor, professor and founding music-school dean at the State University of New York at Purchase, Hammond received Bush's nomination as new NEA chairman last September. At that time, Hammond served as dean of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston.
"I am deeply honored by President Bush's confidence in me," Hammond said at that time. "The National Endowment for the Arts is an increasingly important agency. The arts can help heal our country and be a source of pride and comfort."
Besides helping to found SUNY Purchase's music college, Hammond also planned its facilities and curriculum, and later served as the college's president. He also founded the Pepsico Summerfare, the major international arts festival at Purchase. Before coming to New York, he had served as director of the Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.
Hammond had worked as associate conductor of the American Symphony with Leopold Stokowski; conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic; musical director and conductor of the Dessoff Choirs in New York City; and composer in residence for the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. He had written numerous scores for theatre, both in the U.S. and abroad. He served as director of Canticum, an ensemble for the performance of Medieval and Renaissance vocal music. He lectured annually at the Texas Medical Center in its Health Care and the Arts series. In March 2000, he directed a production of Stravinsky's opera "The Rake's Progress" at Rice University, assisted by his son Thomas, a professional actor living in New York.
Also at Rice, Hammond wrote the architectural program for the new music building, Alice Pratt Brown Hall, designed by Ricardo Bofill. He had also served as the founding rector of the Prague Mozart Academy in the Czech Republic, now the European Mozart Academy. He was on the board of the Houston Symphony and served on the search committee for the orchestra's new conductor.
Educated at Lawrence University, Delhi University (India) and having studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, Hammond had shown special interests in the music of Southeast Asia, Western Medieval and Renaissance music, and the relationships between neuroscience and music. He earned his degree at Oxford in philosophy, psychology and physiology, and had taught neuroanatomy and physiology at Marquette Medical School and the University of Wisconsin.
Besides his son, Hammond is also survived by his wife, Anne Lilley Hammond. Funeral arrangements were pending.