Sunday, December 7, 2008
My musical background
William Bolcom
Named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America, and honored with multiple Grammy Awards for his ground-breaking setting of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, William Bolcom is a composer of cabaret songs, concertos, sonatas, operas, symphonies and much more. He was awarded the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in Music for hisTwelve New Etudes for piano.
In September 2006 Bolcom's Canciones de Lorca with tenor Placido Domingo, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and conductor Carl St. Clair was premiered at the gala opening concert of the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Orange Country Performing Arts Center, Costa Mesa, CA. Nine New Bagatelles, commissioned by Friends of New Music/Music Teachers’ Association of California and premiered by four student pianists in Los Angeles in July 2006.
Bolcom taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973-2008. In 1983 he was named a full professor 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.
In addition to their performances, Bolcom and Morris have recorded two dozen albums together. Their first one, After the Ball, garnered a Grammy nomination for Joan Morris. Their most recent recordings are two albums of songs by lyricist E. Y. “Yip” Harburg and Gus Kahn on Original Cast Records and Bolcom’s complete cabaret songs, written with lyricist Arnold Weinstein, on Centaur.
Garrick Ohlsson Master Class
I performed Chopin Mazuruka C#minor for Garrick Ohlsson's Master class. Here's details.
Garrick Ohlsson, Piano Master Class
10th March 2008
Frederick Loewe Theatre
More on Mr. Ohlsson here.