Biography

William Mayer (Composer) has had a wide-ranging career. Born in New York City on November 18. 1925, he entered Yale with the notion of becoming a writer and graduated in 1949 with equal affinities for music and language. A tilt toward music became evident as Mayer continued his training at Juilliard and at the Mannes College of Music, studying with Roger Sessions and Felix Salzer, and later with Otto Luening. Yet his love for the written word never left him. He has fashioned his own libretti and, at times, composed music to original poems and texts.

Again and again, Mayer's scores evoke the distant past. Even the titles - One Christmas Long Ago, Abandoned Bells, and that of an all-Mayer recording, Voices From Lost Realms - reveal this reaching back through time. Some works look back to his personal past. Of Dream's End, the New York Times wrote, "This instrumental sextet was written to memorialize a young family member, and its blend of pain, joy, and acceptance is very moving." The composer has been drawn to the far reaches of space no less than that of time. Transparent textures and remote key relationships suggest this vastness in Two Pastels for Orchestra and Inner and Outer Strings, recorded, respectively, by Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and Gerard Schwarz.

The New Grove Dictionary of American Music ("Amerigrove") also comments on this juxtaposition of opposites: "Mayer's style is characterized by a contrasting of transparent textures with humorous, highly rhythmic, and densely scored passages." No work better illustrates this duality than Octagon for Piano and Orchestra, which also quite separately shows off Mayer's delight in sheer sound. In his vocal-chamber endeavors this sensitivity to instrumental timbre has combined with a gift of song to produce some of the composers most memorable scores - Fern Hill, Eight Miniatures, Distant Playing Fields (recorded by the Chamber Orchestra of St. Luke's), and the familiar Enter Ariel among them.

Somewhat surprisingly, Mayer is almost as well known for his humor as for his lyricism. This humor is a shade dark in Brief Candle, a six-minute opera in three acts twitting the brevity of life. But in Overture for an American, an orchestral salute to Theodore Roosevelt, the humor is joyous and robust. Mayer's piquant core to A.A. Milne's fanciful text Good King Wenceslas demonstrates the composer's "unusual flow of fancy and wit," as Joseph Machlis remarks in his Introduction to Contemporary Music. The little-known Milne text is a tongue-in-cheek (but also touching) exploration of the Good King's identity. First performed in orchestral form by conductor Paul Dunkel and narrator Robert Sherman, who commissioned the score. It has found favor with adults and children alike.

Another work that straddles adult and young people's concerts is the widely performed Scenes From the Snow Queen, derived from the ballet, which depicts Hans Christian Andersen's Arctic tale. Symphonic groups have performed the suite in such diverse locales as Oslo, Minneapolis, New York, Montreal, and Charleston (at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival). Mayer's first recognition actually came from his writing for young people's concerts, when the Little Orchestra Society commissioned him, resulting in Hello, World! a musical trip around the globe that has had innumerable performances, broadcasts, and an RCA recording narrated by Eleanor Roosevelt. Some of his works to his own texts take a wildly satirical turn, as in Two News Items, where a frantic soprano finds herself turning into a hen. Mayer has also written about contemporary music, receiving assignments from the New York Times and the United States Information Agency, which also commissioned him to write his piano work Abandoned Bells for its Artistic Ambassador Series. He has been particularly active at Composers Recordings, Inc., where he has served as chairman of the board.

Often singled out for his lyricism. Mayer was praised in the magazine Fanfare, where James A. North observed, "[He] has written superbly lyrical music, and is still doing so." His opera A Death in the Family (recently released on Albany Records), in which Jake Gardner and Dawn Upshaw took the leading roles, is a repository of such lyricism. So are two oratorios, The Eve of St. Agnes and Spring Came on Forever, commissioned and premiered by the New York Choral Society; and the orchestral works Andante for Strings and Of Rivers and Trains, which looks back in time to the early days of river transportation.

Mayer's many awards and honors include two NEA grants, a citation from the National Institute for Music Theater for contributing to the advancement of American musical theater - his opera A Death in the Family was specifically cited - and from the Ford Foundation and the New York and Michigan State arts councils. He has been honored with an award for life achievement in music from the Center for Contemporary Opera.

Artists performing his works reflect the wide range of his music and include Leopold Stokowski, Lukas Foss, Gerard Schwarz, Max Rudolf, Morton Gould, Edwin London, Dawn Upshaw, Eleanor Steber, Heidi Grant Murphy, Burl Ives, and William Masselos, Mayer's compositions are presently available on Albany Records, Arabesque, CRI, Koch International, Newport Classics, Phoenix, and Preiser records. His primary publisher is Theodore Presser; other publishers are Boelke-Bomart, Boosey & Hawkes, Carl Fischer, and Lawson-Gould.

William Mayer lives in New York and Vermont with his wife, the artist Meredith Nevins Mayer.

Contact Information

33 Greenwich Ave., Apt. 5D
New York, NY 10014
Telephone: 212-741-7234
Email: meremay212@aol.com

Annual Updates

2006

North River Music sponsored an all-Mayer evening of music on November 17, 2005, at the Greenwich House Music School, which included works for piano, chamber music, and voice and chamber ensemble. Conductors Victoria Bond and Mimi Stern-Wolfe participated in the event. Festive Alleluia and Kyrie were recently heard in a performance led by Johannes Somary, former music director of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, NY. Mayer’s 80th birthday was celebrated by a variety of musical groups, including the Bronx Arts Ensemble, the Composers Concordance, Downtown Music Productions, the Quintet of the Americas, the Davidson Singers, the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble, and a number of radio stations, including WQXR and WYNC. Vermont Public Radio also broadcast an all-Mayer hour as part of the celebration.

Premieres

Octagon, in a version for two pianos, was given its premiere August 25, 2004, by pianists Judith Olson and Steven Mayer, New York, NY. Twists for oboe and viola was introduced November 17, 2005, on the North River Music Series in New York, NY.

Performances

Choral excerpts from the opera A Death in the Family were presented by the Gregg Smith Singers on March 13, 2004, St. Peter’s Church, New York, NY. The Negro Speaks of Rivers, a choral setting of a text by Langston Hughes, was presented October 14 in a New York City performance featuring vocalist Harold Rosenbaum. The North/South Consonance, under the direction of Max Lifchitz, performed Dream’s End for flute, oboe, horn, violin, cello, and piano on February 13, 2005. Unlikely Neighbors for flute, oboe, clarinet, trombone, and piano was performed October 16 by the Bronx Arts Ensemble. Summer Glints for flute, oboe, string quartet, countertenor and harpsichord was performed by the Queens Chamber Band, New York, NY.

Publications

Subway in the Sunlight, suite for piano; Zoom-bah, soprano, flute, viola, and harp; Yankee Doodle Fanfare; all by Theodore Presser.

Recordings

Messages, for flute, string trio, and percussion; North/South Consonance conducted by Max Lifchitz. Summer Glints, recorded by Queens Chamber Band. Subway in the Sunlight, pianist Suhan Arzuni; New World.