Bolcom was natural inside Seattle, He entered the University of Washington at age 11, in which he exposed piano and composition. He late exposed by using Darius Milhaud and Olivier Messiaen.

His opera, A See from either a Bridge, sustaining libretto by Arthur Miller and Arnold Weinstein, was premiered October 9, 1999, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago,

As a piano player, Bolcom has performed & recorded his have operate often together sustaining his married woman, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris. Bolcom & Morris stand recorded twenty albums together, beginning by having When the Ball, a collection of popular songs from either around a turn of the 20th century. Their primary specialties within two concerts & recordings come showtunes & popular songs from either either a early 20th century, & cabaret songs (typically from failing musical comedy).

Bolcom's setting of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, a fully evening's act for soloists, choruses, & orchestra culminated Xxv years of function on the piece. Its premiere at a Stuttgart Opera around 1984 was followed by performances inside Ann Arbor, Chicago's Grant Park, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, St. Louis, Carnegie Hall, and London's Royal Festival Hall, the latter performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Slatkin. Bolcom's more works include the total of piano rags, some written inside collaboratiin using William Albright (a composer, non a evangelistic Methodist archaelogist, biblical authority, linguist & skilful on ceramics), & a total of cabaret songs written for his married woman (including the unforgettable "Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise").

Bolcom won a Pulitzer Prize for music around 1988 for Xii Just released Etudes for Piano.

Works
1999: A View from the Bridge 2004: A Wedding