Mayer, William (Robert)
Mayer, William (Robert)
Mayer, William (Robert) , American composer; b. N.Y., Nov. 18, 1925. He was a student of Richard Donovan and Herbert Baumgartner at Yale Univ. (B.A., 1949), of Sessions at the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y. (summer, 1949), of Salzer at the Mannes Coll. of Music in N.Y. (1949–52), and of Izler Solomon (conducting) at the Aspen (Colo.) Music School (summer, 1960). In 1966 he held a Guggenheim fellowship. In 1980 he was secretary of the National Music Council. He received the National Inst. for Musical Theater Award in 1983.
Works
dramatic:The Greatest Sound Around, children’s opera (1954); Hello World!, children’s opera (N.Y, Nov. 10, 1956); The Snow Queen, ballet (1963); One Christmas Long Ago, opera (Philadelphia, Dec. 12, 1964); Brief Candle,”micro-opera” (1964); A Death in the Family, opera (Minneapolis, March 11, 1983); A Sobbing Pillow of Man (N.Y, Dec. 7, 1995). orch.: Andante for Strings (1955); Hebraic Portrait (1957); Overture for an American (1958); 2 Pastels (1960); Octago for Piano and Orch. (N.Y, March 21, 1971); Inner and Outer Strings for String Quartet and Orch. (1982); Of Rivers and Trains (Albany, N.Y, Nov. 4, 1988). other: Chamber music; children’s piano pieces; choruses; songs.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire