Bill Douglas
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Bill Douglas
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Birth name
| Bill Douglas
|
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Born
| (
1944-11-07
)
November 7, 1944
(age 79)
London
,
Ontario
, Canada
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Genres
| Jazz
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Occupation(s)
| Musician
, composer
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Instrument(s)
| Piano
,
keyboards
,
bassoon
,
trombone
,
flute
,
bass flute
,
clarinet
,
bass clarinet
,
contrabass clarinet
, and others
|
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Years active
| since 1989
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Labels
| Hearts of Space
, Tala
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Musical artist
Bill Douglas
(born November 7, 1944) is a
Canadian
musician
,
composer
,
pianist
, and
bassoonist
whose works received influence from
classical music
,
jazz
,
African
, Brazilian
[
clarification needed
]
and
Indian music
, 1970s
funk
and many other genres.
He has toured and recorded for thirty years with
clarinetist
Richard Stoltzman
. As a bassoonist, he has played with the
Toronto
and
New Haven Symphony Orchestras
and has recorded three
RCA
albums with
Peter Serkin
and Tashi
1
(
Ida Kavafian
,
Fred Sherry
, Richard Stoltzman and Peter Serkin). As a
jazz pianist
, he has toured and recorded with
vibraphonist
Gary Burton
and
bassist
Eddie Gomez
.
In 1994, the
Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada
(SOCAN), the Canadian equivalent of the
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
(ASCAP) and
Broadcast Music Incorporated
(BMI), presented him with their classical composer of the year award. His compositions have been performed by major orchestras and chamber groups around the world. He has been teaching at
Naropa University
in
Boulder, Colorado
for twenty-nine years. Thirteen CDs of his music are available.
Biography
[
edit
]
Bill Douglas was born on November 7, 1944, in
London
,
Ontario
, Canada. His father played
trombone
and sang in a
big band
, and his mother played
organ
in church. His earliest memory is of himself playing in a
one-man band
with toy instruments when he was three. He began
piano
lessons at four and taught himself
ukulele
and
guitar
when he was seven. At age eight, he started to write songs influenced by early
rock musicians
such as
Little Richard
,
The Everly Brothers
, and
Elvis Presley
. His two brothers formed a band in which he which performed these tunes and other rock songs from the 1950s.
When he was thirteen, he started to play bassoon and became very interested in both classical music and jazz. By this time, Douglas had definitely decided on a career in music. His heroes in jazz were
Bill Evans
,
Miles Davis
, and
John Coltrane
, and he wrote his first jazz tunes at fourteen. He received an "
Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto
" diploma in classical piano at age seventeen.
From 1962 to 1966, Douglas attended the
University of Toronto
and obtained a
BA
in
music education
. During this time, he became very interested in
20th-century classical music
, and started composing pieces influenced by
Anton Webern
,
Elliott Carter
, and
Igor Stravinsky
, as well as such contemporary jazz artists as
Paul Bley
and
Gary Peacock
. He played fourth bassoon in the Toronto Symphony, and often played jazz piano gigs on weekends.
Douglas was awarded a
Woodrow Wilson Fellowship
in 1966, and attended
Yale University
from 1966 to 1969. There he met clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, and they have been touring and recording ever since. In 1967, Douglas played three
concerti
with the Toronto Symphony. He received a
Master of Music
degree majoring in bassoon in 1968, and a Master of Musical Arts degree in composition in 1969. At this time, Douglas was writing very
avant-garde
atonal music
. After Yale, he received a
Canada Council
award to study composition in
London
,
England
for a year.
From 1970 to 1977, Douglas taught at the
California Institute of the Arts
in
Valencia, California
. Here, he became very interested in African and Indian music. He started writing a series of rhythm studies for his students called
Rock Etudes
(later, the name was changed to
Vocal Rhythm Etudes
). These were influenced by African, Indian, and Brazilian music, as well as contemporary classical music, jazz, and funk (particularly the 70s funk of Miles Davis and
Herbie Hancock
). They have been used in many schools around
North America
, and he performs at least one of them in all his concerts. Douglas also started to write short
tonal
and
modal
lyrical pieces for his students. These eventually became part of his concert repertoire, and he has recorded many of them. He also recorded, in 1976, three RCA albums of classical
chamber music
with pianist Peter Serkin and Tashi.
In 1977, he moved to Boulder,
Colorado
to teach at the Naropa Institute. He continues to teach there and to tour with Richard Stoltzman and his own groups. With Richard, he also often plays with bassist Eddie Gomez. Some of his bassoon students from Cal Arts moved to Boulder with him, and they formed the Boulder Bassoon Band which played together for twenty years.
Bill Douglas has recorded eleven CDs of his music
[1]
for
Hearts of Space Records
(owned since 2001 by
Valley Entertainment
). Six of these have featured the
Ars Nova Singers
conducted by Thomas Morgan. In 1998, RCA released an album entitled
Open Sky: Richard Stoltzman plays the Music of Bill Douglas.
In March, 1999, his
Concerto for African Percussion Ensemble and Orchestra
was premiered by Nexus and the
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra
. In April, 2005, his
oboe
concerto was premiered by Peter Cooper and the
Colorado Symphony Orchestra
. In March, 2009, his Concerto for Darbouka and Orchestra was premiered by the
Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra
with soloist
Rony Barrak
.
[2]
Among the many musicians who have inspired and influenced him are
Johann Sebastian Bach
,
Bill Evans
,
Keith Jarrett
,
Josquin des Prez
,
William Byrd
,
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
,
Ralph Vaughan Williams
, and
Ali Akbar Khan
.
Discography
[
edit
]
- Albums
Notes
[
edit
]
^1
Tashi consists of violinist
Ida Kavafian
, cellist Fred Sherry, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and pianist Peter Serkin.
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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International
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National
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Artists
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Other
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