William MacSems

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William "Bill" MacSems (* 1930 in New York City ) is an American composer, conductor and music teacher.

MacSems served as a musician in the US Air Force from 1950 to 1953. In 1959 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University, Los Angeles , and in 1967 a master’s degree from San Francisco State University , where he was a student of Roger Nixon . He then worked as a teacher at various schools in California and New Jersey and as an orchestra and choir conductor until 1998. He was also the founder and director of the Pacific Opera Theater . 1970–71 he studied with Gottfried von Eine at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna .

In 1962 he was commissioned to compose the music show for the 200th anniversary of California. In 1972 the San Mateo Arts Council awarded him a scholarship to support the production of his opera The Outcasts of Poker Flat . The Townsend Opera of Modesto commissioned him in 1995 with a composition as a tribute to the Great Central Valley .

Works

  • Suite for band
  • Elegy
  • Divergence for wind orchestra
  • Highlights from Never Come, Never Go
  • Rodeo Rondo
  • Out of Cuba
  • The Rose Piano Concerto in Eb minor
  • Four pieces for Elementry Piano
  • Hymn of the Valley for narrator, soloist, mixed choir and orchestra
  • Songs of Love , cantata for soloists, mixed choir and orchestra
  • The Key for narrator, mixed choir and orchestra, text by Martin Luther King
  • The Outcasts of Poker Flat , Bret Harte's opera
  • Mardi Gras , opera, libretto by Gale Hoffman
  • The Gift , opera based on O. Henry
  • Pandora's Box after Edgar Allan Poe
  • Infidel , libretto by Michael Hall
  • Everybody Likes Christmas , Musical
  • Never Come Never Go , musical, libretto by Robert M. Wyckoff
  • Air for Flute & Guitar
  • Great Scott for percussion ensemble, bass clarinet and piccolo
  • Turkanschantz Park for violin or cello, clarinet and piano
  • Sonata for clarinet, cello and piano
  • Testimony for string orchestra
  • Toot Suite for wind quintet
  • Stopping by the Woodside after Robert Frost for mixed choir and piano
  • Humility for mixed choir a cappella
  • Gold at Coloma after Stan Halls for mixed choir and piano
  • Let There be Peace for mixed choir a cappella
  • Three Poems By Emily Dickinson for three-part mixed choir
  • No Man Is An Island (text by John Donne )
  • Lay Me Down Midst
  • Birds of Frost: three poems by Robert Frost

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