Biography
Meredith Willson was an American composer, flautist, conductor and playwright. Born on 18 May 1902 in Mason City, Iowa, he studied at the Institute of Musical Art in New York (later Juilliard) and played flute and piccolo in John Philip Sousa's band from 1921 to 1923 and in the New York Philharmonic under Arturo Toscanini from 1924 to 1929.
Willson composed the score for Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940), for which he received an Academy Award nomination, and arranged music for The Little Foxes (1941), earning a second nomination. He is best known for writing the book, music and lyrics for the Broadway musical The Music Man, which premiered in 1957 and was adapted into a 1962 film; he also wrote The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1960 Broadway; 1964 film).
