Composer & Pianist
Named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America and honored with multiple Grammy Awards for his ground-breaking setting of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, William Bolcom is a composer of cabaret songs, concertos, sonatas, operas, and symphonies.
With his wife, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris, he has performed in concert for more than 30 years throughout the United States, Canada, and abroad. In addition to performing together, Bolcom and Morris have recorded two dozen albums together. Their first one, 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, Minnesota, with a two-and-a-half-week festival of his music, including masterclasses, recitals, and concerts of 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 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.