Music Academy of the West Will Host
Celebrated Composer William Bolcom
For Immediate Release July 14, 2008
Contact:
Tim Dougherty
805.695.7908
Santa Barbara, CA – Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and pianist William Bolcom will headline a trio of events, including a recital on July 29 and a public conversation with radio personality Jim Svejda on July 28, as part of a two-week residency at the Music Academy of the West. Mr. Bolcom also will co-lead a vocal masterclass on July 29. The latter event and the public conversation will take place at the Music Academy's newly renovated Hahn Hall. The recital will take place at Santa Barbara's Lobero Theatre.
Mr. Bolcom, who was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America, will discuss his impressive body of work – including the comic opera A Wedding, which the Academy will stage at The Lobero on August 8 and 10 – with Mr. Svejda beginning at 7:30 pm July 28 in Hahn Hall. The event is free and open to the public. Mr. Svejda, a popular program host on KUSC, is the author of The Record Shelf Guide to Classical Music.
On July 29 Mr. Bolcom will join his wife, the noted mezzo-soprano Joan Morris, for a vocal masterclass at 3:15 pm in Hahn Hall, and an evening recital at the Lobero Theatre. Masterclass tickets cost $18 ($16 for students and seniors). The evening performance will take place as part of the Music Academy's weekly Chamberfest series, which features Academy faculty and guest artists in chamber music concerts each Tuesday at The Lobero throughout the Summer Festival. Mr. Bolcom and Ms. Morris will perform selections from Cabaret Songs – composed by Mr. Bolcom, with lyrics by Arnold Weinstein – to close out the July 29 installment of Chamberfest, which begins at 8 pm. Tickets cost $38. The program also will include Mr. Bolcom's Quintet for Brass, as well as works by Tchaikovsky, Pierre Gabaye, and Arthur Bliss.
Honored with multiple Grammy Awards for his ground-breaking setting of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Mr. Bolcom is a composer of cabaret songs, concertos, sonatas, operas, and symphonies. He has performed in concert with his wife for more than 30 years throughout the United States, Canada, and abroad. The duo also has recorded two dozen albums. Their first, titled After the Ball, garnered a Grammy nomination for Ms. Morris.
Recent premieres include his Canciones de Lorca with tenor Placido Domingo, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, and conductor Carl St. Clair at the gala opening concert of the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in September 2006, and Nine New Bagatelles, commissioned by Friends of Today's Music/Music Teachers' Association of California and premiered by four student pianists in July 2006.
In the spring of 2007, Mr. Bolcom was feted in Minneapolis-St. Paul with a two-and-a-half-week festival of his music, including masterclasses, recitals, and concerts featuring his vocal, organ, and chamber music. Titled "Illuminating Bolcom," the festival was highlighted by two performances of Songs of Innocence and of Experience accompanied by animated projections of Blake's illuminations. The animations were commissioned by VocalEssence and created by projection designer Wendall K. Harrington, who also designed the projections for Mr. Bolcom's opera A View from the Bridge.
Mr. Bolcom has taught composition at the University of Michigan since 1973. He has been a full professor since 1983 and served as 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.
The Music Academy is presenting the West Coast premiere of Mr. Bolcom's opera A Wedding as well as performances by conductor Peter Oundjian and the Takács Quartet as part of the Academy's 61st Summer Festival. Additional highlights include a performance by the Canadian Brass, and conducting turns by Nicholas McGegan, Anne Manson, and Daniel Hege. Featuring the Academy's exceptionally talented Fellows, together with illustrious guest performers and faculty, the events are presented at the Academy's scenic Miraflores campus and in venues throughout Santa Barbara.
For information, call 969-8787. Information is also available online at www.musicacademy.org.
Founded in 1947, the Music Academy of the West is among the nation's preeminent summer schools and festivals for gifted young classical musicians. The Academy provides these promising musicians with the opportunity for advanced study and frequent performance under the guidance of internationally renowned faculty artists, as well as guest conductors and soloists. Admission to the Academy is strictly merit based, and Fellows receive full scholarships (tuition, room, and board). Academy alumni are members of major symphony orchestras, chamber orchestras, ensembles, opera companies, and university and conservatory faculties throughout the world. Many enjoy careers as prominent solo artists. Based in Santa Barbara, the Music Academy of the West presents more than 200 public events annually, including performances by faculty, visiting artists, and Fellows; masterclasses; orchestra and chamber music concerts; and fully staged opera. The Music Academy will broadcast live performances by the world-renowned Metropolitan Opera at Hahn Hall beginning in October. For more information, visit www.musicacademy.org.
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