Biography
William Schuman infused his compositions with empathy and expressive depth alongside the notes themselves, spanning orchestral scores and tangos alike as a leading figure in concert, contemporary, and chamber music. An American creator honored with numerous distinctions, he occupied an array of teaching posts throughout his life. His cantata "A Free Song" claimed the inaugural Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1943.
Born in New York in 1910, Schuman showed greater youthful enthusiasm for baseball than for musical pursuits. Only at age sixteen did he turn to composition, producing a tango as his earliest effort. While in high school he organized a jazz ensemble and performed on violin and banjo. At Columbia University Teachers' College he began writing concert pieces and later trained under Roy Harris. Serge Koussevitzky led the premiere of "American Festival Overture" in 1939. Schuman achieved worldwide notice after his 1933 "Symphony No. 3" received the New York Critics' Circle Award.
Alongside his creative work, Schuman maintained an active teaching career, serving at Sarah Lawrence College from 1935 to 1945 and then at the Juilliard School of Music from 1945 to 1962. At Juilliard he established the Juilliard String Quartet, introduced a dance division, and incorporated the historical study of music into the curriculum. In 1962 he assumed the presidency of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, where he also created the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. His commitment to education prompted further initiatives, including a summer arts series and a chamber-music program for city schools.
Schuman blended jazz and folk elements across a wide range of genres and performing forces. Among his output stand the baseball opera The Mighty Casey, the ballets Choreographic Poem, Undertone, and Night Journey, the film score for Steeltown, ten symphonies, and numerous concertos and choruses.
Throughout his professional life he directed the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, the Chamber Society of Lincoln Center, National Television, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Recognition followed his achievements: election to both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Academy of Music, receipt of the National Medal of Arts in 1987, and a Kennedy Center tribute in Washington, D.C., in 1989. Schuman died in New York City at the age of eighty-one.
Born in New York in 1910, Schuman showed greater youthful enthusiasm for baseball than for musical pursuits. Only at age sixteen did he turn to composition, producing a tango as his earliest effort. While in high school he organized a jazz ensemble and performed on violin and banjo. At Columbia University Teachers' College he began writing concert pieces and later trained under Roy Harris. Serge Koussevitzky led the premiere of "American Festival Overture" in 1939. Schuman achieved worldwide notice after his 1933 "Symphony No. 3" received the New York Critics' Circle Award.
Alongside his creative work, Schuman maintained an active teaching career, serving at Sarah Lawrence College from 1935 to 1945 and then at the Juilliard School of Music from 1945 to 1962. At Juilliard he established the Juilliard String Quartet, introduced a dance division, and incorporated the historical study of music into the curriculum. In 1962 he assumed the presidency of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, where he also created the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. His commitment to education prompted further initiatives, including a summer arts series and a chamber-music program for city schools.
Schuman blended jazz and folk elements across a wide range of genres and performing forces. Among his output stand the baseball opera The Mighty Casey, the ballets Choreographic Poem, Undertone, and Night Journey, the film score for Steeltown, ten symphonies, and numerous concertos and choruses.
Throughout his professional life he directed the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, the Chamber Society of Lincoln Center, National Television, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Recognition followed his achievements: election to both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Academy of Music, receipt of the National Medal of Arts in 1987, and a Kennedy Center tribute in Washington, D.C., in 1989. Schuman died in New York City at the age of eighty-one.