William Bolcom

From Wind Repertory Project

William Bolcom

Biography

National Medal of Arts, Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning composer William Bolcom (born 26 May 1938) is an American composer of chamber, operatic, vocal, choral, cabaret, ragtime and symphonic music. Bolcom was born in Seattle, Washington. At the age of 11, he began composition studies with George Fredrick McKay and John Verall at the University of Washington, continuing piano lessons with Madame Berthe Poncy Jacobson. He later studied with Darius Milhaud at Mills College while working on his Master of Arts degree, with Leland Smith at Stanford University while working on his D.M.A., and with Olivier Messiaen and Milhaud at the Paris Conservatoire, where he received the 2éme Prix de Composition.

Bolcom has taught composition at the University of Michigan since 1973. He has been a full professor since 1983 and was Chairman of the Composition Department from 1998 to 2003. In the fall of 1994 the University of Michigan named him the Ross Lee Finney Distinguished University Professor of Composition. He has recorded for Advance, Jazzology, Musical Heritage, Nonesuch, Vox, and Omega, among others.