Howard Martin Van Hyning (January 9, 1936 – October 30, 2010) was an American

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

who was best known for his work with the

New York City Opera The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through its 2013 bankruptcy, and again since 2016 when it was revived. The opera company, dubbed "the peopl ...

. He built a collection of more than 1,000 percussion instruments that he would make available to orchestras for performances and which included an array of

gong A gongFrom Indonesian language, Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and ...

s that were specifically constructed for use in performances of ''

Turandot ''Turandot'' ( ; see #Origin and pronunciation of the name, below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. Puccini left the opera unfinished at the time of his death in 1924; it ...

'' by

Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for List of compositions by Giacomo Puccini#Operas, his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he ...

. Van Hyning taught at

Mannes College The New School for Music The Mannes School of Music (), originally called the David Mannes Music School and later the Mannes Music School, Mannes College of Music, the Chatham Square Music School, and Mannes College: The New School for Music, is a music conservatory in T ...

Biography

Van Hyning was born in

Umatilla, Florida Umatilla is a city in Lake County, Florida, United States. The population was 3,685 at the 2020 census. Umatilla is known as the Gateway to the Ocala National Forest, located in northern Lake County. History The city was named after Umatilla, ...

. He earned his undergraduate degree and a master's from the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

, which he attended on a scholarship, studying percussion under the instruction of Morris Goldenberg and

Saul Goodman James Morgan Jimmy McGill, better known by his business name Saul Goodman, is a fictional character created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould and portrayed by Bob Odenkirk in the television franchise ''Breaking Bad''. He appears as a major c ...

.Staff
In Memoriam: Howard Van Hyning
,

Percussive Arts Society The Percussive Arts Society (PAS) is a non-profit organization for professional percussionists and percussion educators. It was founded in 1961 in the United States and has over 5,000 members in 40 American chapters, with another 28 chapters abr ...

. Accessed November 9, 2010. He spent two years with the

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore SO has its principal residence at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where it performs more than 130 concerts a year. In 2005, ...

. Having been hired by the New York City Opera in 1966, he became the orchestra's principal percussionist, serving for 40 years before he was forced to retire from the company in 2006 due to

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

. During his career he amassed a collection of rare and unusual percussion instruments, including a unique set of 13 gongs constructed by the Tronci family specifically for Puccini. Van Hyning had been searching for a proper set of gongs and obtained the original set from the Stivanello Costume Company, which had acquired the gongs as the result of winning a bet. In 1987 he bought the gongs for his collection, paying thousands of dollars for the set, which he described as having "colorful, intense, centered and perfumed" sound qualities.Fox, Margalit
"Howard Van Hyning, Percussionist and Gong Enthusiast, Dies at 74"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', November 8, 2010. Accessed November 9, 2010. He founded Van Percussion as a company that would rent out his rare and unusual instruments to orchestras around the world.

Death

A resident of

Hastings-on-Hudson, New York Hastings-on-Hudson is a administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in Westchester County located in the southwestern part of the administrative divisions of New York#Town, town of Greenburgh, New York, Greenburgh in the state of New Yo ...

, Van Hyning died at the age of 74 on October 30, 2010, at his home there due to a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

. He was survived by his wife, Marlene Piturro, as well as by a daughter and a son.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Hyning, Howard 1936 births 2010 deaths People from Umatilla, Florida American percussionists Classical percussionists Juilliard School alumni The New School faculty Musicians from Florida People from Hastings-on-Hudson, New York 20th-century American classical musicians