With nominees such as Mariah Carey and Kanye West taking up press space across the country, the University and the Grammy Awards may seem like surprising bedfellows. But for renowned composer and School of Music Prof. William Bolcom, the University was integral in the success of his piece, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, which was nominated for three Grammy awards, including Best Contemporary Classical Composition. "I'm delighted for all the people involved as well as myself," Bolcom said of the nomination. "This involves a major accomplishment from the School of Music's point of view, as well as everybody else."

Bolcom's Songs, a classical composition based on William Blake's poems, was not a solitary enterprise but involved the cooperation of the entire School of Music. Though Songs has been performed all over the world by various orchestras worldwide, from London to Stuttgart, Bolcom is most enthusiastic when it comes to the performance here at the University.

"I'm so thrilled to see the piece realized this way," Bolcom said, referring to the piece's recording by University students. When he was working on it, he said he told himself, "I don't want to use a standard orchestra. I don't want to use a standard anything, and I took a look at the students around me and said, 'We should make our own orchestra with the demographics of the school.' It made it kind of like a reinvention of the orchestra, which is what I've always wanted to do."

One of the most unique features of Songs is its integration of poetry with music. "The poems took me so many crazy places I never thought I would go," Bolcom said. "It gave me courage to put together the most surprising juxtapositions."

His current work-in-progress also involves poetry. "I'm doing a song cycle for orchestra on the poems of (Spanish poet Federico) Garcia Lorca," he said.

The Civic Symphony Orchestra in Orange County, Calif. requested to use his upcoming Lorca piece for the inauguration of their new venue. Bolcom said the renowned tenor Placido Domingo will also a part of his new project, which should be ready by next September.

Songs was a work 25 years in the making. "I fell in love with Blake when I was 17," Bolcom said. "I just knew it was going to take years to figure it out." The long process taught Bolcom much, however, and his experiences became a critical part of Songs's development. "All that would eventually show up in the piece," he said. "Twenty-five years later I put the double bar on it and that was it."

When it comes to the Grammys, Bolcom focuses not on the notoriety of the awards but on the opportunities it presents. He said he holds the nomination at the same height of his other awards.

"But it's nice for the visibility. What I'm particularly happy about is something that's started - for the School of Music itself. Reviewer after reviewer has said that 'I can't believe this is a school orchestra.' This is quite exciting," he said.

Bolcom also said that one of his favorite parts of Songs is the community that developed around it. "What was interesting for me," he said, "was to see all these different walks of life of music on the same stage. These were students who had never seen each other. Just that kind of interchange between all different types of people - It's all part of the story and I was so excited to see people meet and brought together."