National Medal of Arts, Pulitzer and Grammy Award-winning composer/pianist William Bolcom was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1938. Exhibiting musical talent while still very young, he began composition studies at the age of 11 with John Verrall, and piano lessons with Berthe P. Jacobson at the University of Washington. During this time he performed extensively in the Northwest and Seattle areas.

In 1958 Bolcom studied at the University of Washington,Mills College in California, and the Paris Conservatoire de Musique; he earned a doctorate in composition from Stanford University. He returned to the Paris in 1965. While in Europe, he began writing stage scores for theaters in Germany, continuing at Stanford University, at the Lincoln Center/New Ryork, and the Yale Repertory Theater.

His music spans the arc from string sonatas and quartets, symphonies, operas, stage and film scores and an extensive catalog of chamber and vocal works. As a pianist, Bolcom has performed and recorded his own work in collaboration with his wife and musical partner, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris. 

“What will survive is what nourishes us emotionally and spiritually, probably to the detriment of what is merely interesting. "Art is what is irresistible," the writer William Saroyan once said to me, and I have yet to find a better definition of it.” (The End of the Mannerist Century, by William Bolcom)

The Dranoff International Two Piano Foundation commissioned him with the two-piano work for the 3rd Dranoff International Two Piano Competition in 1991. The piece is titled: “Recuerdos”.

see also: www.williambolcom.com