Musical Background
After starting college as a science and engineering major, Haskell Small began his musical education at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and earned a BFA in music from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1972, where he studied piano under Harry Frankin and composition under Roland Leich. Subsequently he studied composition privately under Vincent Persichetti, and studied piano privately under Theodore Lettvin, Leon Fleisher and William Masselos. Masselos continued as Small's teacher until his death in 1992.
In addition to his mastery of the standard classical repertoire, including works by Beethoven, Scarlatti and Schubert, Small played in rock and roll bands during his college years, and he integrates blues, jazz and other modern and postmodern idioms into his compositions.
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