Memorial Award Recognizes Excellence in Piano Performance
By Sarah Hacker
On warm summer nights when Douglas Hastings was a teenager on Helderberg Lake, he could put magic in the air. Seated at his family’s seven-foot Steinway grand piano with little formal training, he played. Chopin, Beethoven, Joplin – the music of the greats flowed through the living room’s open windows and over calm water, accompanying the lake’s evening concert of wailing loons and waves lapping gently at the shore. Neighbors were drawn out to their decks and patios to enjoy the remarkable sounds coming from the youngest member of the Hastings home.
“It was a treat to have Doug as our son,” says his father, UAlbany Professor Emeritus George Hastings.
Music ran in the family. Douglas’s mother, UAlbany Professor Emeritus Iliana Semmler, who passed away in 2016, was a talented pianist. Her father was famed composer for CBS radio and TV, Alexander Semmler. It was his Steinway that Douglas and his older sister played after it was moved from their grandfather’s New York City apartment to their home on Helderberg Lake in East Berne, NY.
Douglas took to the instrument naturally and could improvise melodies at a young age. “His ear and his hands were working well together,” remembers Hastings. With some instruction from his mother but no organized lessons, he mastered sonatas and concertos and eventually taught himself to play whatever inspired him.
Despite his talent, Douglas did not pursue music professionally. “He played because he loved it,” says Hastings. In 1984 he joined his parents at UAlbany to pursue a graduate degree in psychology.
“He was very bright and lots of fun and very handsome,” Hastings describes. “Those were great pluses for him. But he had two tough things.” Douglas was gay, which in the early 80s was not an easy life for him his father says. He also struggled with clinical depression. Tragically, he took his own life in 1985 when he was just 23 years old.
Devastated and after a long period of intense grief, Hastings and Semmler sought to honor the treasured memory of their son at UAlbany. In 2002, they established the Douglas Malcolm Hastings Music Award to provide annual support for a graduating senior concentrating in piano performance in the Department of Music.
Shelley Dumoulin ’02 was “incredibly honored” to be the first recipient of the Hastings Award. A nontraditional student earning her BA while raising four children, she developed a personal relationship with Hastings and Semmler. “They were very warm toward me,” she recalls. “They really wanted to get to know me, which was nice because it was that connection that I think made them feel like some purpose had been served through their wonderful gift.”
With the money from her award, Dumoulin purchased a high-quality portable keyboard which has been critical in sustaining her income as a performer and a teacher when a piano isn’t available. “It's still sitting in my music studio, ready for the next thing,” she says.
A lot has changed since Douglas’s death. The LGBTQ community is out, strong and proud. More mental health resources exist and there is less stigma in seeking them out. But for more than two decades, Douglas’s memory has played on for Hastings Award recipients, helping them make the same music that so dazzled his lakeside neighbors all those years ago.
Memorial Award Recognizes Excellence in Piano Performance
By Sarah Hacker
On warm summer nights when Douglas Hastings was a teenager on Helderberg Lake, he could put magic in the air. Seated at his family’s seven-foot Steinway grand piano with little formal training, he played. Chopin, Beethoven, Joplin – the music of the greats flowed through the living room’s open windows and over calm water, accompanying the lake’s evening concert of wailing loons and waves lapping gently at the shore. Neighbors were drawn out to their decks and patios to enjoy the remarkable sounds coming from the youngest member of the Hastings home.
“It was a treat to have Doug as our son,” says his father, UAlbany Professor Emeritus George Hastings.
Music ran in the family. Douglas’s mother, UAlbany Professor Emeritus Iliana Semmler, who passed away in 2016, was a talented pianist. Her father was famed composer for CBS radio and TV, Alexander Semmler. It was his Steinway that Douglas and his older sister played after it was moved from their grandfather’s New York City apartment to their home on Helderberg Lake in East Berne, NY.
Douglas took to the instrument naturally and could improvise melodies at a young age. “His ear and his hands were working well together,” remembers Hastings. With some instruction from his mother but no organized lessons, he mastered sonatas and concertos and eventually taught himself to play whatever inspired him.
Despite his talent, Douglas did not pursue music professionally. “He played because he loved it,” says Hastings. In 1984 he joined his parents at UAlbany to pursue a graduate degree in psychology.
“He was very bright and lots of fun and very handsome,” Hastings describes. “Those were great pluses for him. But he had two tough things.” Douglas was gay, which in the early 80s was not an easy life for him his father says. He also struggled with clinical depression. Tragically, he took his own life in 1985 when he was just 23 years old.
Devastated and after a long period of intense grief, Hastings and Semmler sought to honor the treasured memory of their son at UAlbany. In 2002, they established the Douglas Malcolm Hastings Music Award to provide annual support for a graduating senior concentrating in piano performance in the Department of Music.
Shelley Dumoulin ’02 was “incredibly honored” to be the first recipient of the Hastings Award. A nontraditional student earning her BA while raising four children, she developed a personal relationship with Hastings and Semmler. “They were very warm toward me,” she recalls. “They really wanted to get to know me, which was nice because it was that connection that I think made them feel like some purpose had been served through their wonderful gift.”
With the money from her award, Dumoulin purchased a high-quality portable keyboard which has been critical in sustaining her income as a performer and a teacher when a piano isn’t available. “It's still sitting in my music studio, ready for the next thing,” she says.
A lot has changed since Douglas’s death. The LGBTQ community is out, strong and proud. More mental health resources exist and there is less stigma in seeking them out. But for more than two decades, Douglas’s memory has played on for Hastings Award recipients, helping them make the same music that so dazzled his lakeside neighbors all those years ago.
