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Composers BureauWilliam BolcomBiography Composer and pianist, William Bolcom, born in Seattle, Washington, entered the University of Washington at age 11, where he studied piano and composition, earning A. degree there in 1958. Further studies followed with Darius Milhaud at Mills College and at the Paris Conservatoire; he completed his doctorate in composition at Stanford University in 1964. He composed the score, with assistance from Arnold Black, for John Turturro's movie, Illuminata, which opened nationwide in August 1999. His new opera, A View from the Bridge, with libretto by Arthur Miller and Arnold Weinstein, will be premiered October 9, 1999, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, with eight more performances during the season. Bolcom's work is well represented on recordings - as pianist, as composer, and in collaboration with his wife, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris. To date Bolcom and Morris have recorded 20 albums together, of which After the Ball was nominated for a Grammy, as were Bolcom's Fourth Symphony (featuring Morris as soloist with Leonard Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra) and Orphee-Serenade (recorded by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with Bolcom as piano soloist). The duo's latest albums, Orchids in the Moonlight and The Carioca (songs of Vincent Youmans), with tenor Robert White, are available on Arabesque; On Moonlight Bay - Songs As Is and Songs As Was, on Albany Records. Bolcom's setting of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, a full evening's work for soloists, choruses, and orchestra culminated 25 years of work on the piece. Its premiere at the Stuttgart Opera in 1984 was followed by performances in Ann Arbor, Chicago's Grant Park, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, St. Louis, Carnegie Hall, and London's Royal Festival Hall. The latter performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Slatkin was broadcast live throughout the United Kingdom on CBC Radio 3. Bolcom has taught composition at the University of Michigan since 1973, has been a full professor since 1983, and chairman of the Composition Department since 1998. In 1977 he received the prestigious Henry Russel Award, the highest academic prize given by the University, followed 20 years later by the Henry Russel Lectureship, delivered by a senior faculty member; in the fall of 1994 the University of Michigan named him the Ross Lee Finney Distinguished University Professor of Music. Other recent awards and honors include: the Michigan Council for the Arts Award, the Governor's Arts Award from the State of Michigan, investiture in the American Academy of Arts and Letters, honorary doctorates from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Albion College, and the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1988 for his 12 New Etudes for Piano. In February 2006, the CD Bolcom: Songs Of Innocence And Of Experience was awarded four Grammys: Best Classical Album, Best Choral Performance, Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and Best Producer (Tim Handley) Recent Premieres Further Information
Contact Information E-mail: wbolcom@umich.edu |
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Last updated
5/29/2007 |
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