Joan Morris

Joan Morris, a mezzo-soprano celebrated for her command of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century popular song, is equally recognized for the cabaret repertoire composed by her husband William Bolcom and by other contemporary writers. She has also performed more weighty pieces, among them the vocal part Bolcom created for his Symphony No. 4.

Born in Portland, Oregon, Morris revealed uncommon vocal promise while still in her teens. In 1963 she entered Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, studying there with Lyle Moore until she left in 1965. A scholarship then took her to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, where Clifford Jackson guided her vocal training. After receiving her diploma in 1968 she appeared in numerous off-Broadway productions and nightclub engagements, frequently accompanied by harpist Jay Miller. She continued private lessons with Jackson through 1973 and worked with Frederica Schmitz-Svevo from 1968 until 1974.

In 1972 Morris began collaborating with pianist and composer William Bolcom, who became her regular accompanist. They married three years later and have since sustained an active recital partnership across the United States and Europe as well as in such distant venues as Egypt and Turkey. Together they have produced roughly twenty-three recordings, many of which achieved strong sales. Their debut project, the 1974 Nonesuch album After the Ball: A Treasury of Turn-of-the-Century Popular Songs, earned a Grammy nomination.

After the marriage Morris maintained her involvement in staged musical works. In 1979 she sang the role of Polly in The Beggar’s Opera at Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theater, where Bolcom and Darius Milhaud supplied the music. Two years later she joined the faculty of the University of Michigan School of Music, teaching musical theater and specializing in cabaret repertoire. In 1984 she introduced Bolcom’s song cycle Songs of Innocence and Experience, drawn from William Blake, at a Stuttgart premiere. Four years afterward she took part in the first performance of his Symphony No. 4 with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin, delivering a memorable account of the Roethke setting The Rose. The work was later recorded for New World Records and won widespread praise.

In 1990 Morris and Bolcom released the Nonesuch collection Blue Skies: Songs by Irving Berlin. That same year she appeared in the premiere of Casino Paradise, a musical-theater opera with Bolcom’s music and Arnold Weinstein’s lyrics; a Koch Classics recording followed. May 1993 brought a joint appearance on Charles Kuralt’s CBS Sunday Morning, and the couple have been featured on other broadcasts including the Dick Cavett Show, PBS presentations, and National Public Radio. Morris remained active through the 1990s; a 2002 Naxos release devoted to George McKay includes several of his songs performed by Morris with Bolcom at the piano.