MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Schuman: Symphony No. 10 / New England Triptych / American Festival Overture

William Schuman was born on 4 August 1910, in New York City. His first musical studies centered on the violin, though a passion for jazz and popular music led him to teach himself a variety of instruments. On hearing Arturo Toscanini conduct the New York Philharmonic in 1930, Schuman withdrew from the School of Commerce at New York University after a two-year stint there and embarked upon private studies in harmony with Max Persin and counterpoint with Charles Haubiel. Following studies at Columbia University (B.A. from Teachers College, 1935) and at Juilliard with Roy Harris, he joined the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College. In 1943, Schuman won the first Pulitzer Prize in music for his cantata, A Free Song. Two years later he left academe to assume dual rôles as director of publications for G. Schirmer, Inc. and president of the Juilliard School. From 1962 to 1969 he served as president of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Balancing multiple careers as teacher and administrator, Schuman was able to write a large amount of music. His Second Symphony (1937) caught the collective attention of the musical world when it was performed the following year in New York City. His best-known works are New England Triptych, based on music written by the eighteenth-century American composer William Billings, and his orchestration of Charles Ives's wittily irreverent Variations on "America". He died on 15 February 1992, in New York City.