William Bolcom
In April 2001, William Bolcom traveled
to Boston to receive an honorary doctoral degree (his
third) from the New England Conservatory of Music.
He also judged a young composers' concert for BMI,
was a panel member for grants to the Philadelphia
Music Project, and gave the keynote speech at the
annual Opera America conference in Atlanta, GA. During
the 2001-2002 season, pianist Bolcom and his wife,
mezzo-soprano Joan Morris, are giving performances
in Ann Arbor, Farmington, Detroit, Grosse Pointe,
and Chelsea, MI; Muskoka, Ontario; Chicago, Philadelphia,
New York, and Forbach, France. Recordings made in
2001 included First Sonata, with Bolcom and
violinist Paul Kantor (September); and an album of
songs by lyricist Yip Harburg, with Bolcom, Morris,
and Max Morath (October). In 2000, Cooper Square Press
reissued Reminiscing with Noble Sissle and Eubie
Blake, by Robert Kimball and Bolcom.
Premieres
The Prism Quartet introduced Concerto
Grosso, for saxophone quartet and orchestra, on
October 20, 2000, in Detroit's Orchestra Hall with
the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jahja
Ling, and then performed the work throughout the season
in Dallas, Anchorage, Chicago, Interlochen, MI, and
several other cities. Piano Quintet, written
for Isaac Stern's 80th birthday, was premiered by
members of the Emerson Quartet, Stern, and pianist
Jonathan Biss on March 10, 2001, at the Kennedy Center,
in Washington, DC, and then repeated in Boston with
pianist Yefim Bronfman. At a program at the Library
of Congress, in Washington, DC, on March 16, 2001,
with many members of the Thomas Jefferson and Sally
Hemings families in attendance, mezzo-soprano Florence
Quivar presented From the Diary of Sally Hemings
(imaginary diary by Sandra Seaton) with pianist J.
J. Penna, followed by performances in San Francisco,
in April 2001, and several more American cities during
2001-02. Heard first in New York, NY, in 2001 were
Rhyme (poetry by Richard Tillinghast) written
to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the New York
Festival of Song, March 22; and September 1, 1939
(poem by W. H. Auden), by tenor Robert White at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 17, 2001. Song
for Band, written at the request of retiring University
of Michigan Director of Bands, H. Robert Reynolds,
had its first performance in Ann Arbor, MI, as part
of his farewell concert on April 6, 2001. The Rendez-vous
Musique Nouvelle Festival, November 2001 in Forbach,
France, included the premiere of Ancient Cabaret
(Arnold Weinstein's translation of Latin and Greek
poems), five songs for medium voice and piano, with
Bolcom and Morris.
Performances
Revived by an effort spearheaded by
Rip Torn, Bolcom's opera for actors, Dynamite Tonite
(written with Weinstein during the 1960s), had four
performances in March 2001 at The Actor's Studio in
New York, featuring Estelle Parsons, David Greenspan,
and Bob Dishy. The composer played his First Sonata
with violinist Paul Kantor at Kerrytown Concert House,
in Ann Arbor, September 14-15, 2001.
Publications
Carol (Neighbors, on This Frosty
Tide) (words by Kenneth Grahame and Weinstein)
by Morris and Bolcom; SATB choir and piano; New
York Lights from the opera A View from the
Bridge (text by Weinstein and Arthur Miller),
based on the Miller play; tenor and piano; both by
Edward B. Marks Music Co. and Bolcom Music, distributed
by Hal Leonard Publishing Corp., 2001.
Recordings
A View from the Bridge; from
Chicago Lyric Opera live performances; New World Records.
Further Information
