Bolcom and Morris receive achievement award. (Association News).

The acclaimed duo, William Bolcom and Joan Morris, also received the 2002 Music Teachers National Association Achievement Award following their performance at the MTNA FOUNDATION Gala.

"It is an honor to present William and Joan with this prestigious award," says MTNA President Dr. R. Wayne Gibson, NCTM. "They have greatly contributed to the music industry as educators and performers. We feel privileged to have had them be a part of our conference."

Pianist and composer William Bolcom and Joan Morris, mezzosoprano, have been concertizing together as husband and wife since 1972. This duo performs an eclectic mixture of music: American popular songs from the late nineteenth century through the 1920s and '30s, the latest songs by Leiber and Stoller, and cabaret songs by Bolcom and poet-lyricist Arnold Weinstein. They have performed throughout the Unites States, Canada and abroad.

Morris attended Gonzaga University prior to her scholarship studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. She has appeared in off-Broadway and road productions, and received a Grammy nomination for "best overall vocal soloist performance on a classical album." Morris has taught cabaret class for twenty-one years at the University of Michigan's School of Music, where she is an adjunct professor of musical theater.

Bolcom earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Washington and attained his doctorate in composition at Stanford University. Bolcom has taught composition at the University of Michigan for twenty-nine years and is chairman of the composition department. He was named the Ross Finney Distinguished University Professor of Music in 1994.

In addition to their rigorous performance schedule, Bolcom and Morris frequently give master classes throughout the Unites States and Canada in "classical American popular song."