Honors and Awards
Various awards throughout William Bolcom's career include:
- 2021: Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition, awarded by the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University
- 2019: William Bolcom and Joan Morris received the Arts Alliance Medal for Arts, Sciences and Humanities - Lifetime Achievement
- 2014: Paul Revere Prize for Graphic Design
- 2011: Recipient of American Music Center Letter of Distinction
- 2010: Inducted into American Classical Music Hall of Fame
- 2010: Recipient of the Eddie Medora King Award from The University of Texas at Austin, Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music
- 2010: Honorary Doctor of Music from University of Hartford
- 2007: Named "Composer of the Year" by Musical America
- 2006: National Medal of Arts bestowed by the President of the United States
- 2006: Named Outstanding Classical Composer at the Detroit Music Awards
- 2006: Honorary Doctor of Music from Baldwin-Wallace College
- 2005: The recording of Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and of Experience received four Grammys for Best Classical Album, Best Choral Performance, Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and Best Producer of the Year/Classical
- 2004: Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from New School University in New York
- 2003: Recipient of the Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus Award from the University of Washington
- 2001: Honorary Doctor of Musical Arts from New England Conservatory of Music
- 1997: The University of Michigan's Henry Russel Lectureship, awarded to a senior faculty member
- 1995: Honorary Doctor of Music from Albion College
- 1994: Honorary Doctor of Music from San Francisco Conservatory of Music
- 1993: Koussevitzky Foundation Award for Lyric Concerto for Flute and Orchestra (written for James Galway)
- 1992: Investiture in the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- 1988: The Pulitzer Prize for Music for 12 New Etudes for Piano
- 1977: The Henry Russel Award, the highest academic prize given by the University of Michigan
- 1976: Koussevitzky Foundation Award for the First Piano Quartet
- 1966: The Marc Blitzstein Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters forDynamite Tonite, an opera for actors written with Arnold Weinstein
- 1965, 1968: Two Guggenheim fellowships
- 1953: BMI award
In addition:
- Several Rockefeller Foundation awards
- Several NEA grants
- The Michigan Council for the Arts Award
- The Governor's Arts Award from the State of Michigan