Douglas Hill, Emeritus Professor of Music-Horn at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, (1974-2011), recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Teaching (2009), the Emily Mead Baldwin Bell-Bascom Professor of the Creative Arts, and a Wisconsin Arts Council Artist Fellowship, was President of the International Horn Society from 1977 to 1980. He has performed as principal horn with the Rochester Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Co., the Contemporary Chamber Ensembles of both New York (European tour and recording), and Chicago, the "Mass" of Leonard Bernstein at Lincoln Center, and at the Metropolitan Opera House, and "Mostly Mozart” at Carnegie Hall. Hill also performed over 37 years with the Wingra Woodwind Quintet and the Wisconsin Brass Quintet, and for 30 years with the Madison Symphony Orchestra.

Hill was the original hornist in the Spoleto Festival Brass Quintet, performed and toured with the New York Brass Quintet, and has soloed with orchestras in the U.S., Germany, and China. He was featured as a recitalist and clinician at numerous International, National, and Regional Horn and Brass Workshops. His interest in modern performance practices is fully demonstrated in his book Extended Techniques for the Horn - A Handbook for Students, Composers and Performers (including sound demonstrations on CD.) (Available from RGM) Hill also authored Introducing the French Horn for GIA Publications, and the most positively reviewed set of tutorial essays: Collected Thoughts on Teaching and Learning, Creativity and Horn Performance, available through Amazon.

Douglas Hill was included as one of only 20 hornists in the book of biographical sketches; Twentieth Century Brass Soloists by Michael Meckna, based primarily on the success of his recordings and solo appearances. br> Musicians Showcase Recordings, MS1060, is a double CD (145 minutes of music), featuring 14 of Hill’s original compositions performed by alumni, faculty, students, and staff of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music. He has recorded two solo albums with pianist Karen Zaczek Hill for Crystal Records (re-released on CD in 1999), "A Solo Voice" on GunMar Records (modern unaccompanied works), and has recorded with the St. Louis Symphony, Contemporary Chamber Ensembles of Chicago and New York, Wingra Woodwind Quintet, Dick Shory at Carnegie Hall, and with the Wisconsin Brass Quintet on Crystal, Summit and Mark Records. Hill was featured in a full-length educational video "HILL ON HORN." (Available from RGM) and frequently contributed articles to leading journals and periodicals. He has served on the faculties of the Oberlin Conservatory, Aspen Music School, Asian Youth Orchestra Rehearsal Camp in Hong Kong, the Conservatories of Beijing and Shanghai, the Sarasota Music Festival, Hartt College and Yale Summer Schools, Orford Music Festival, the University of South Florida, Wilkes College, and the University of Connecticut.

As a frequent recipient of research grants, he has studied unrecorded horn and piano repertoire, extended techniques, hand horn, extemporization and compositional techniques and applications. Mr. Hill is also a widely published and recorded composer including such works as; "Abstraction for Solo and Eight Horns," "Jazz Soliloquies for Horn," "Jazz Set for Solo Horn," "Shared Reflections for Four Horns," "Intrada for Brass Quintet," “A Set of Songs and Dances” recorded by Gail Williams. ”The Spirit World...Massacre," for Wisconsin Public Television, and "Ceremonial Images" for tribal drum and large ensemble, (commissioned by the Omaha Symphony) was produced in full for broadcast by Nebraska Educational Television and as a part of a CBS feature on "Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt." Hill’s nearly 100 varied compositions and publications include "Song Suite in Jazz Style" for Horn and Piano, "Reflections" for Solo Horn, "Intrada" for Brass Choir, "Timepieces" for Brass Quintet, "A Place for Hawks" for Mezzo Soprano, Horn and Strings, "Elegy" for Violin and Horn, "Americana Variations" for Horn Quartet, "Homage to ’Thoreau" for Chorus, Flute and Drum, and “Scenes from Sand County” for Narrator, Wind Quintet and Strings, “Abe Lincoln’s Songbook” for three instrumentalists, “Bass ’n’ Brass Trio” for Horn, Trombone, and String Bass, “Jazz Sonata” for Horn and Piano, three new sets of duets for horn, new works for Alphorn, and numerous horn ensemble works and compositions for unaccompanied horn. Most of the above works are available from RGM.