William Mayer

Biography

William Mayer, an American composer who has worked in virtually every genre, grew up in a home filled with books and recordings. He entered Yale University in 1944. His studies were interrupted by military service, then resumed. He graduated in 1949. He was profoundly influenced while at Yale by a literature professor, and over half of his works since have been prompted by poetry, fables, novels, and texts of all kinds (including his own). In 1971 the great conductor Leopold Stokowski, who was then 88 years old, conducted Mayer’s Octagon, an eight-movement piano concerto, at Carnegie Hall. William Masselos soloed. In a letter, George Rochberg said of Octagon, “structurally it is fascinating. As soon as a lyric passage appears, it is bombarded, transformed … like a crystal before your eyes.” Mayer’s accomplishments also include stage works such as A Sobbing Pillow of a Man; Essay for Brass and Winds for Chamber; A Death in the Family for Choral.