William Bolcom

Artist Profile and Interview by Matthew de Lacey Davidson, October 31, 2021 

Critics from around the world came to Ireland to weigh in on the opera's European Premiere in October

CMS of Lincoln Center has been celebrating various composers' 80 years of experience, craft, and skill. They recently sat down with William Bolcom to learn more about his illustrious career, his influences, and his landmark works.

"In his music — a vast and varied catalog that includes symphonies, operas, chamber music and song cycles — the most ingratiating and accessible strains keep company with gnarled dissonances."

An interview with classical music radio host Jennifer Hambrick of WOSU Public Media, Columbus, OH 

A non-profit based in the UK, Wild Plum Arts nurtures composers through commission, promotion, and performance.

Critics applaud Bolcom's timely new work for "unusual consort of clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, violin, cello and piano" 

An interview conducted by Bruce Duffie  in Chicago in November, 1992. Award winning broadcaster Bruce Duffie was with WNIB, Classical 97 in Chicago from 1975 until its final moment as a classical station in February of 2001.  His interviews have also appeared in various magazines and journals since 1980, and he now continues his broadcast series on WNUR-FM.

This interview with William Bolcom, which took place on June 29,1986, also included the participation of his wife, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris. Bruce Duffie says: "As with some other musical couples that I’ve interviewed, on occasion they both responded to my questions together back and forth, and I was perceptive enough not to interrupt!"

"Tangos, fandangos, waltzes, even snatches of ragtime and jazz pepper Bolcom's musical pastiche" 

Bolcom's "Piano Trio (2014, written for the Delphi) moved fluidly among modernist styles with massive dark textures in the opening of the piece to Gershwin-like bluesy harmony at the start of the slow movement."

The New York Times and New York Classical Review praised the world premiere of William Bolcom’s Trombone Concerto, featuring the Philharmonic’s principal trombonist, Joseph Alessi.