Biography
American composer William Thayer Ames (1901-1987) was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and wrote his first compositions while attending Harvard in the early 1920s. After graduating with a degree in music, Ames studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and returned to the United States to teach at the Eastman School of Music. In 1940 Harvard awarded Ames a masters degree, and he lived for a time in New York. It was during this period that a program of his works was performed at Carnegie Hall. In 1954 Ames was appointed to the faculty at Cornell's dance department (pieces for dance and theater were almost as important to him as his chamber music, orchestral works and operas). Following spells in New Hampshire and New York, Ames retired to the peaceful setting of Mendocino, California in 1965, where he spent the rest of his life writing music.
From the guide to the William Ames Collection, 1947-1966, (Archive of Recorded Sound)
