Exhibits

The Ross Hastings Project

Biographical Information

Ross Hastings in 1925, age 10

Ross Ray Hastings was born February 26, 1915, in Clara Barton Hospital, Los Angeles, California, across the street from the Philharmonic Auditorium, which he was destined to be associated with in various ways until 1945. Ross began learning to play the piano at seven, began writing at thirteen, his father taught him harmony, which he mastered at fourteen, and by seventeen was seriously composing. Formal music, with the exception of one semester at the University of Southern California, was unknown to him. He credited his father with most of what he knew of music.

His father, Dr. Ray Hastings, had a college degree (and an honorary doctorate). After graduation he spent a year in Germany and Paris, where he studied with the French organist, Joseph Bonnet. For thirty years Ray Hastings was organist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the Temple Baptist Church, whose services were held in the auditorium.

Ross Hastings always said he also absorbed a great deal of knowledge through his years as an usher in the Philharmonic Auditorium, where all cultural programs that came to Los Angeles, musical and otherwise, were performed. Since the auditorium at that time was used for all of the city's major musical events, it became as much a part of his education as his attendance at the University of Southern California, according to former UW-Eau Claire Symphonic Band Director, Donald S. George.

He went to Page Military School and Harvard Military School and graduated from Alhambra High School at 16 in 1931. After his graduation from high school he had odd jobs, such as ushering at the auditorium, soda jerking, chauffering, uncrating furniture, hanging pants for a men's outfitting concern, and doing outside contract work selling tickets for the Hollywood Bowl. In the summer of 1934 he and a friend, Henry Putnam, took jobs aboard a Dollar Line ship bound for the Orient. Ross shipped out as a wiper, cleaning floor plates in the engine room. That trip was one of the biggest thrills of his life.

On returning, he went back to ushering at the Philharmonic Auditorium. In 1937 he took a job with an upholstery company as maintenance man. He worked himself up to office manager, still continuing to work for the Philharmonic at night.

During the late 1940s and early '50s, he served as choral conductor for the San Diego Symphony, then moved to New York in 1955 to work as a free-lance arranger. Hastings returned to California for six consecutive summers (1957-62) to serve as staff arranger/orchestrator for the Hollywood Bowl Pops.

In 1962 he joined Warner Bros.' publishing arm, becoming editor in chief two years later. He followed that with a seven-year stint as chief editor for Bourne Co., a major publisher based in New York City specializing in music for schools and churches. He retired in 1980 to devote more time to composition. Ross Hastings died in July of 1991.

Based on a biographical sketch by Hastings's wife, Marion, written in early 1996, and on an article by Ann Hoffman published in The View, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, fall 1992.