William Bolcom - Biography

That William Bolcom's compositions are frequently recorded and performed by the world's leading musical institutions is testimony to his stature as a living "national treasure." His work with American vernacular styles and in theatrical modes has been a strong impulse in his music making, both as a composer and a performer. As he explains, "My explorations in all sorts of music from America's past have been to learn the roots of our musical language, so that I can build from them." A student of Darius Milhaud and Oliver Messiaen, Mr. Bolcom has had a number of honors bestowed upon him, including the Pulitzer Prize for Music, two Koussevitzky Foundation Awards, two Guggenheim Fellowships, several Rockefeller Foundation Awards and NEA Grants, the Marc Blitzstein Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters, the Michigan Council for the Arts Award, and the Governor's Arts Award from the State of Michigan. 

In recent years, Bolcom has been commissioned by many prestigious performing organizations, including the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony, the Boston Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Orpheus Ensemble, among others. Resulting works have included Lyric Concerto for James Galway and the St. Louis Symphony, A View from the Bridge and McTeague for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Fifth Symphony for the Philadelphia Orchestra, Sonata for Cello and Piano for Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax, GAEA, a double piano concerto for Leon Fleisher, Gary Graffman, the Baltimore, St. Louis, and Pacific Symphonies, Piano Quartet No. 2 for the Beaux Arts Trio with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, and Sixth Symphony for the National Symphony Orchestra. For their 100th anniversary, the University of Michigan Band commissioned the Concert Suite for Saxophone and Band.  Other commissions have included the Carnegie Hall Centennial, for which he wrote a song cycle with texts by American women poets, ballet scores for the Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Murray Louis Troupe, and the commissioned work for the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 1997. His extended three-hour work, Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience has been performed in many music centers in Europe and the United States.  Mr. Bolcom is well represented on recordings as pianist, composer, and with his wife, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris.  The Seattle native is the Ross Lee Finney Distinguished Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan.