William Schuman (1910 - 1992)

TRANSCRIPTION

Dear Howard¹:

        I look forward to hearing
this under your knowing batan [sic] over
CBS one of these days.

Best greetings,

Bill Schuman
Larchmont, N.Y.
June 1942

NOTES:
1) "Howard" is Howard Barlow (1892-1972), who conducted the American National Orchestra from 1923 to 1925; the Neighborhood Playhouse 1925 to 1927; and the CBS Symphony Orchestra from 1927 to 1943 with which he presented a number of new works.

ABOUT THE COMPOSER

     William Schuman was born in New York on August 4, 1910. He began composing in high school and formed his own a jazz ensemble. His first composition was a tango when he was 16. He attended Columbia University Teachers College where he earned both a bachelor's and a master's degree. He went on to Juilliard and studied with with Roy Harris, who was very influential on the young composer and introduced him to conductor Serge Koussevitzky who, in 1939, conducted the first performance of Schuman’s American Festival Overture. His Symphony No. 3 established him as a major American composer and won him the first New York Music Critics' Circle Award. Schuman wrote in nearly every musical genre, incorporating American jazz and folk tunes. His harmony spans from conservative to dissonant to polytonal. He received the first Pulitzer Prize in music in 1943 for his cantata, A Free Song.

    In 1945, Schuman was named president of the Juilliard School. During his tenure, he founded the Juilliard String Quartet, added the dance division to Juilliard’s curriculum, and developed the landmark Literature and Materials of Music Approach to the Study of Music. He became president of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 1962.

    During his career, Schuman was Director of the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, National Educational Television, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. In addition to his election to both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Academy of Music, Schuman received the National Medal of Arts in 1987 and, in 1989, was honored by the Kennedy Center in Washington. William Schuman died February 15, 1992.

REV. 01/15/2004

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