| Born: | August 4, 1910 in The Bronx, New York, America |  |
| Died: | February 15, 1992 in New York, New York, America | |
| Nationality: | American | |
| Era: | Twentieth Century | |
| Main genre: | Orchestral, Wind and Percussion, Chamber Music, Piano and Organ, Chorus and Voice, Film and Stage | |
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| Brief biography: | William Schumann was a song plugger, attended business school, formed a dance band and played violin and banjo. He composed 40 songs with Frank Loesser, heard his first symphony concert at age 20 and studied at Juilliard with Roy Harris. His music incorporated American jazz and folk traditions. His composition Secular Cantata No. 2 A Free Song received the first Pulitzer Prize in music in 1943. The Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliff Choral Society, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky conducting performed it on March 26, 1943. Schuman became President of the Juilliard School in 1945 and the first president of the newly founded Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 1961. He was also Director of the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, National Educational Television, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. | |