Morton Gould was born in Richmond Hill, New York. He was recognized early as a child prodigy with abilities in improvisation and composition. His first composition was published at age six. Gould studied at the Institute of Musical Art in New York, his most important teachers were Abby Whiteside and Vincent Jones. During the Depression, Gould, while a teenager, worked in New York City playing piano in movie theaters, as well as with vaudeville acts. When Radio City Music Hall opened, Gould was hired as the staff pianist. By 1935, he was conducting and arranging orchestral programs for New York’s WOR radio station, where he reached a national audience via the Mutual Broadcasting System, combining popular programming with classical music. In 1936, Gould married Shirley Uzin, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1943. In the following year, Gould married Shirley Bank. This marriage too ended in divorce. In the 1940s, Gould appeared on the Cresta Blanca Carnival program as well as The Chrysler Hour on CBS where he reached an audience of millions. In 1942, he composed music for the short film Ring of Steel, directed by Garson Kanin and produced by the Film Unit of the U.S. Office for Emergency Management. Morton Gould had four children. On 16 February 1945, Gould’s son Eric was born. Gould’s son David was born on 2 March 1947. Gould’s first daughter, Abby, was born on 3 February 1950, and, on 21 December 1954, his daughter Deborah was born.

Morton Gould composed Broadway scores such as Billion Dollar Baby and Arms and the Girl; film music such as Delightfully Dangerous, Cinerama Holiday, and Windjammer; music for television series such as World War One and the miniseries Holocaust; and ballet scores including Interplay, Fall River Legend, and I’m Old Fashioned. Gould’s music, commissioned by symphony orchestras all over the United States, was also commissioned by the Library of Congress, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the American Ballet Theatre, and the New York City Ballet. His ability to seamlessly combine multiple musical genres into formal classical structure, while maintaining their distinctive elements, was unsurpassed, and Gould received three commissions for the United States Bicentennial. As a conductor, Gould led all of the major American orchestras as well as those of Canada, Mexico, Europe, Japan, and Australia. With his orchestra, he recorded music of many classical standards, including Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” on which he also played the piano. He won a Grammy Award in 1966 for his recording of Charles Ives’ first symphony, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 1983, Gould received the American Symphony Orchestra League’s Gold Baton Award. In 1986 he was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

An active member of ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) for many decades, Gould served as president from 1986 until 1994. During his tenure, he lobbied for the intellectual rights of performing artists as the internet was becoming a force that would greatly impact ASCAP’s members. Incorporating new styles into his repertoire as they emerged, Gould incorporated wildly disparate elements, including a rapping narrator titled “The Jogger and the Dinosaur,” American tap dancing in his “Tap Dance Concerto” for dancer and orchestra, and a singing fire department titled “Hosedown” commissioned works for the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony. In 1993, his work “Ghost Waltzes” was commissioned for the ninth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. In 1994, Gould received the Kennedy Center Honor in recognition of lifetime contributions to American culture. In 1995, Morton Gould was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music for Stringmusic, a composition commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra in recognition of the final season of director Mstislav Rostropovich. In 2005, he was honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He also was a member of the board of the American Symphony Orchestra League and of the National Endowment for the Arts music panel. Gould’s original manuscripts, personal papers and other pertinent pieces are archived in the Library of Congress and available to the public. Morton Gould died on February 21, 1996 in Orlando, Florida, where he was the first resident guest composer/conductor at the Disney Institute. He was 82 years old.