William Bolcom

William Elden Bolcom (born May 26, 1938) is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, a Grammy Award, and the Detroit Music Award, and was named Composer of the Year by Musical America in 2007. He taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973 to 2008 and was named the Ross Lee Finney Distinguished University Professor of Composition in 2006. He is married to mezzo-soprano Joan Morris. Early life and education Bolcom was born in Seattle, Washington. At age 11, he studied under faculty at University of Washington, including composition with professors George Frederick McKay and John Verrall and piano with Berthe Poncy Jacobson. He later studied with Darius Milhaud at Mills College, with Leland Smith at Stanford University, and with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire, where he received the 2ème Prix de Composition. Career Bolcom was awarded Guggenheim Fellowships in 1964 and 1968. He won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1988 for 12 New Etudes for Piano. He joined the faculty at the University of Michigan School of Music in 1973. In 1994, he was named the Ross Lee Finney Distinguished University Professor of C