William Bolcom

William Bolcom (born May 26, 1938, Seattle, Washington, U.S.) American composer, pianist, and teacher whose compositions encompass many idioms, from popular cabaret songs to more-traditional classical scores.

Bolcom graduated from the University of Washington in 1958 and studied composition with Darius Milhaud at Mills College (1958–61) and with Milhaud and Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatory. He continued his studies at Stanford University (D.M.A., 1964). Thereafter, he taught or was composer in residence at a number of schools before becoming a professor of composition at the University of Michigan in 1973; he retired and became professor emeritus in 2008.

Throughout these years Bolcom developed his compositional abilities, attempting to break down what he saw as the artificial barriers between popular and “serious” music. A prolific composer, he wrote for solo instruments, voice, chamber groups, orchestra, film, and stage. He produced compositions of great diversity, including Dynamite Tonite (1963), a “cabaret opera”; 12 Études for piano (1959–66); and Open House (1975), a song cycle based on poems by Theodore Roethke. As a pianist and composer, Bolcom became well known for his interest in ragtime music; Graceful Ghost Rag (1971), written in memory of his father, is one of several compositions in that genre.

In 1988 Bolcom was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for 12 New Études for piano (1977–86). The much-acclaimed William Blake-inspired Songs of Innocence and Experience (1956–82) is a long work for soloists, chorus, and orchestra regularly performed since 1984; a recording of the work won four Grammy Awards in 2006. The operas McTeague (based on the 1899 novel by Frank Norris), A View from the Bridge (based on the 1955 play by Arthur Miller), and A Wedding (based on Robert Altman’s 1978 movie) premiered at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1992, 1999, and 2004, respectively. Bolcom was also commissioned to write works for a number of major orchestras. His fourth opera, Dinner at Eight (based on the play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber), premiered at the Minnesota Opera in 2017.

From the early 1970s Bolcom and his wife, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris, performed concerts of 19th- and 20th-century American popular songs. He was also active as a writer and editor. He coedited The New Grove Gospel, Blues, and Jazz (1986), wrote with Robert Kimball the book Reminiscing with Sissle and Blake (1973), and edited a collection of George Rochberg’s essays, The Aesthetics of Survival: A Composer’s View of Twentieth-Century Music (1984). In 1992 Bolcom became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.