Meredith Willson
Robert Meredith Willson {18 May 1902 - 15 June 1984) was an American composer and playwright, best known as the writer of The Music Man.Born in Mason City, Iowa, Willson attended Damrosch Institute (later The Juilliard School) in New York City. A flute an piccolo player, Willson was a member of John Philip Sousa's band (1921 - 1923) and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (1924 - 1929. Willson then moved to San Francisco, California as the concert director for KFRC, and then as a musical director for the NBC radio network in Hollywood.
His work for films included the music for Charlie Chaplin's 1940 film The Great Dictator, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. During World War II, he worked for the United States' Armed Forces Radio Service.
Willson's most most famous work, The Music Man, premiered on Broadway in 1957 and was adapted twice for film (in 1962 and 2003; he referred to the play as "an Iowan's attempt to pay tribute to his home state."
His second musical, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, ran on Broadway for 532 performances from 1960 to 1962 and was made into a 1964 motion picture starring Debbie Reynolds.
His Symphony No. 1 In F Minor, A Symphony Of San Francisco, and Symphony No. 2 In E Minor, Missions Of California, were recorded in 1999 by William T. Stromberg conducting the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra.