William Schmidt

Who was William Schmidt?

William Joseph Schmidt, Jr was an American composer, arranger and publisher of classical music.

He was born in Chicago, Illinois and began playing the saxophone at the age of six and later added clarinet and piano to his studies. He started playing professionally by the time he was 12, and began arranging music a few years later.

Between 1944 and 1946, he served in the Navy as musician and arranger in the Admiral’s band on the USS Iowa in the Pacific. Following this he attended Chicago Musical College under the tutelage of Max Wald before moving to Los Angeles in 1952. There, he attended the University of Southern California. Studying with Ingolf Dahl, he received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Composition with honors. During the Korean War, he served again in the Navy as musician and arranger on the USS Tarawa in the Mediterranean.

In 1959 Schmidt formed the company Avant Publishing, specialising in the publishing of classical music. In 1964, Avant became the core of Western International Music, Inc, of which Schmidt was founder and president. The WIM Catalog, today listed nearly 1400 compositions and associated recordings.