Doug Hooker

Doug grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, where his musical education began in elementary school. As a young musician he played violin, viola, oboe, and tenor saxophone in his high school orchestras and bands, and spent five years as a violist with the Cincinnati Youth Symphony Orchestra. Those years gave him a lasting love of classical music, especially orchestral works.

Music has been at the center of Doug's life, though not his profession, as he composes, plays, and sings alongside a long career in public service and community leadership. He has served on the boards of the Atlanta Music Project, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Opera, the Aurora Theatre, the Trey Clegg Singers, the Cornerstone Jazz Collective, and the Arts Leadership Council of Georgia Tech. As Executive Director of the Atlanta Regional Commission, he brought arts and cultural resources into the agency's long-range planning, led the Arts Leaders of Metropolitan Atlanta (ALMA) program to cultivate regional arts leaders, and promoted public art and arts organizations in the public sphere.

His compositions have been performed mostly, though not exclusively, by Georgia-based musicians and ensembles. Notable works include The Sinai Symphony, a four-movement work premiered by the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra and since performed by the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra and the Kennesaw State University Orchestra; and Without Regard to Sex, Race, or Color, a three-movement work for soloists, orchestra, and SATB chorus, performed by musicians from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Opera Orchestra, the Afro-Symphoria Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus, and the Trey Clegg Singers. Its first movement, "A Heavy Lift," premiered at the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. Doug continues to explore his creative voice, with works in progress for jazz ensembles, gospel choruses, opera, and instrumental ensembles.