William Bolcom, who was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America and honored with multiple Grammy Awards for his ground-breaking setting of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, will be in residence at the Glenn Korff School of Music in late January as the inaugural appointee to the Ariel Bybee Endowed Visiting Professor of Opera.
Bolcom is an award-winning composer of cabaret songs, concertos, sonatas, operas, symphonies, and much more. UNL Opera will be performing his opera, “A Wedding,” on Feb. 27 and March 1 in the Kimball Recital Hall. A Wedding was commissioned by the Chicago Lyric Opera and given its premiere performance on Dec. 11, 2004. It is an adaptation of Robert Altman’s 1978 film by the same name.
“We could not be more excited to have such a distinguished figure in modern American opera as William Bolcom to serve as our first Ariel Bybee Endowed Visiting Professor of Opera, said John W. Richmond, Professor and Director of the Glenn Korff School of Music. “These two names — William Bolcom and Ariel Bybee — have been so important to American opera for so many years. This nexus of artistic achievement and commitment to teaching is at once thrilling and inspiring. We are deeply grateful to the many donors that made the Bybee Endowment possible and, of course, deeply grateful to Maestro Bolcom for accepting our invitation to come to campus the week of Jan. 26.
“This will be yet another historic moment in the exciting history of UNL Opera in UNL’s Glenn Korff School of Music.”
While at the Glenn Korff School of Music, Bolcom will:
Coach rehearsals of his opera, A Wedding, to be presented by UNL Opera on Feb. 27 and March 1;
Coach individual singers on their roles;
Present a master class on composition to Glenn Korff School of Music composers; and
Coach individual composers on their works
The Ariel Bybee Endowed Visiting Professor of Opera fund sponsors visiting opera composers, opera directors and opera coaches to come to UNL from across the country and around the world. Bybee is a Metropolitan Opera veteran and UNL voice professor emerita now living in Salt Lake City.
