| William Schuman (1910-1992) Concerto for Piano and Small Orchestra (1943) I. With Energy and Precision II. Deliberately III. Half Note = 144 John McCabe, piano Albany symphony Orchestra/David Alan Miller William Schuman's 60-year career as a composer and an educator left an indelible mark on several generations of American musicians. Schuman began exploring jazz and popular music while attending public school, eventually forming an ensemble of his own (in which he played violin and banjo). Abandoning a career in commerce, Schuman enrolled in the Juilliard Summer School, and, in 1933, entered Columbia University's Teacher's College, eventually taking his bachelor's and master's degrees. After summer study at the Salzburg Mozarteum in 1935 and the completion of his First Symphony in 1936 (a work subsequently withdrawn by the composer) he received private instruction from well-known American composer Roy Harris. Schuman found an ally in conductor Serge Koussevitsky, who, at Harris' prompting, premiered the Symphony No. 2 in 1938 (also subsequently withdrawn). Between 1938 and 1945 Schuman served as director of publications for G. Schirmer, Inc. as well as on the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College, leaving this post to take over as president of the Juilliard School (where he remained until 1961, initiating a wide range of new projects and policies, including the complete reorganization of the theory/composition program and the creation of the Juilliard String Quartet). Other ... |
