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Performing Arts Library Special Collections in Performing Arts ABA Research Center 
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Ostwald Award Archives
Winner 1957: J. Clifton Williams, Symphonic Suite
Winner 1956: J. Clifton Williams, Fanfare and Allegro [Listen]
Biography:
J. Clifton Williams (1923-1976) was born in Traskwood, Arkansas. He began playing French horn early on and qualified for membership in the Little Rock High School band. He attended Louisiana State University (B.M., 1947) where he was a pupil of Helen Gunderson and the Eastman School of Music (M.M., 1948) where he studied with Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson. He was an accomplished French horn player, performing with the San Antonio and New Orleans Symphony Orchestras. In 1949, Williams joined the composition department at the University of Texas School of Music. He taught there until he was appointed Chair of the Theory and Composition Department at University of Miami in 1966. Williams retained this position until his death in 1976.Williams was successful in his career as a teacher, counting among his students W. Francis McBeth and James Barnes Chance. He was also an accomplished composer. Williams's early compositions were for orchestra, but he achieved true success when he began writing for band. His first band composition, Fanfare and Allegro, was immediately well received. This and several of his other compositions remain standard elements of the band repertoire.
Sources:
Fennell, Frederick. "Fennell on J. Clifton Williams". The Instrumentalist, January 1992.
Rehrig, William H. The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1991.
Slonimsky, Nicolas. Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. New York: Schirmer Books, 1992.
