William Bolcom | |
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.jpg) Bolcom in 1985 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | (1938-05-26)May 26, 1938 (age 87) |
| Origin | American |
| Occupations | Composer, pianist |
William Elden Bolcom (born May 26, 1938) is an Americancomposer andpianist. He has received thePulitzer Prize, theNational Medal of Arts, aGrammy Award,[1] and theDetroit Music Award, and was named Composer of the Year byMusical America in 2007. He taught composition at theUniversity of Michigan from 1973 to 2008 and was named theRoss Lee Finney Distinguished University Professor of Composition in 2006. He is married tomezzo-sopranoJoan Morris.
Bolcom was born inSeattle, Washington. At age 11, he studied under faculty atUniversity of Washington, includingcomposition with professorsGeorge Frederick McKay andJohn Verrall and piano with Berthe Poncy Jacobson. He later studied withDarius Milhaud atMills College, withLeland Smith atStanford University, and withOlivier Messiaen at theParis Conservatoire, where he received the 2ème Prix de Composition.[2]
Bolcom was awardedGuggenheim Fellowships[3] in 1964 and 1968. He won thePulitzer Prize for music in 1988 for12 New Etudes for Piano.[4] He joined the faculty at theUniversity of Michigan School of Music in 1973. In 1994, he was named theRoss Lee Finney Distinguished University Professor of Composition. In 2006, he was awarded theNational Medal of Arts. He retired in 2008 after 35 years at the university.[5] Notable students includeDerek Bermel,Gabriela Lena Frank,David T. Little,Carter Pann,Joel Puckett, andElena Ruehr.
As a pianist, Bolcom has performed and recorded frequently in collaboration with Joan Morris, whom he married in 1975.[6] They have recorded more than two dozen albums of music drawn from the American Popular Songbook, beginning with the Grammy-nominatedAfter the Ball, a collection of popular songs from around 1900.[7] Their specialties areshow tunes andparlor,cabaret, and popular songs from the late 19th and early 20th century byHenry Russell,Henry Clay Work, and others.
As a soloist, Bolcom has recorded his own compositions, as well as music byGeorge Gershwin,Darius Milhaud,[6] and severalragtime composers. His compositions have been highlighted in Michigan State University's Michigan Writers Series.[8]
Bolcom's earliest compositions were written when he was around 11 years old; his early influences includeRoy Harris andBéla Bartók. His compositions from around 1960 use a modifiedserial technique, under the influence ofPierre Boulez,Karlheinz Stockhausen, andLuciano Berio, whose music he particularly admired. In the 1960s he gradually began to embrace a wider variety of musical styles. His goal has been to erase boundaries betweenpopular music andart music.[6]
Together withJoan Morris, Bolcom composed the satirical song "Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise" (1980).
Bolcom has written four major operas. Three of them,McTeague,A View from the Bridge, andA Wedding, were commissioned and premiered by theLyric Opera of Chicago and conducted byDennis Russell Davies. All three were written with librettistArnold Weinstein, sometimes in collaboration with other writers.McTeague, based onFrank Norris's1899 novel, premiered on October 31, 1992.A View from the Bridge, with libretto by Weinstein andArthur Miller, premiered on October 9, 1999.A Wedding, based onRobert Altman's1978 motion picture, with libretto by Weinstein and Altman, premiered on December 11, 2004. His fourth opera,Dinner at Eight, composed with librettistMark Campbell and based on theGeorge S. Kaufman andEdna Ferber play of the same name, premiered on March 11, 2017, by the commissioning organization,Minnesota Opera.[9]
Bolcom has also composed concertos such asLyric Concerto for Flute and Orchestra forJames Galway, the Concerto in D for Violin and Orchestra forSergiu Luca, the Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra forStanley Drucker, and Concert Suite foralto saxophone andband, composed for University of Michigan professorDonald Sinta in 1998. He wrote his concertoGaea for two pianos (left hand) and orchestra forGary Graffman andLeon Fleisher, both of whom had debilitating problems with their right hands. The Baltimore Symphony premiered it on April 11, 1996, conducted byDavid Zinman.[10] The concerto is constructed so that it can be performed in three ways, with either piano part alone with reduced orchestra or with both piano parts and the two reduced orchestras combined into a full orchestra.[11]
Bolcom's other works include ninesymphonies, 12 string quartets, four violin sonatas, severalpiano rags (one written withWilliam Albright), four volumes ofGospel Preludes for organ, four volumes of cabaret songs, three musical theater works (Casino Paradise,Dynamite Tonite, andGreatshot; all with Weinstein), and a one-act chamber opera,Lucrezia, with librettist Mark Campbell.The Dranoff International Two Piano Foundation commissioned Bolcom to writeRecuerdos[12] for two pianos.[13]
Bolcom has written a number of song cycles. Many of these were cabarets with lyrics by Arnold Weinstein and meant to be sung by Joan Morris.[14] These 24 cabarets were released in four volumes from the 1970s to the 1990s[failed verification] and were released all together on CD.From the Diary of Sally Hemings, a song cycle for voice and piano, is a collaboration with playwright/librettistSandra Seaton. Of Bolcom's other song cycles, the best-known is his setting of William Blake'sSongs of Innocence and of Experience.
Bolcom's setting ofWilliam Blake'sSongs of Innocence and of Experience, a three-hour work for soloists, choruses, and orchestra, was a culmination of 25 years of work.
VocalEssence celebrated Bolcom's music with a two-week festival inMinneapolis andSt. Paul in April 2007. Nine different performances and a number ofmaster classes were part of the festival. The spotlight performance was ofSongs of Innocence and of Experience, performed in Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis by over 400 musicians under projections of Blake's accompanying artwork.
Eastern Michigan University celebrated its 16th Biennial Contemporary Music Festival by featuring Bolcom as a guest composer. The three-day festival showcased a range of his compositions as well as a discussion on "Musical Grass-Roots" led by Bolcom.[21]
Le Piano Ouvert celebrated Bolcom's 75th birthday with a week of concerts and masterclasses in Paris in March 2014. Bolcom and Morris both performed, and were featured on France Musique[22] in a series of live performances and interviews.[23] The festival was directed by Guy Livingston, Anne de Fornel, and David Levi. Concerts were held at the Mona Bismarck American Center in Paris, and at the Hôtel Talleyrand on Place de la Concorde.[24]
In April 2022, as part of the internationalHeidelberger Frühling Music Festival,Igor Levit and theMahler Chamber Orchestra premiered Bolcom's second piano concerto, conducted byElim Chan in the auditorium of the Neue Universität Heidelberg.[25]
SeeJoan Morris page for Bolcom and Morris discography.
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