Allan Arthur Willman

Allan Arthur Willman was an American classical pianist, composer, music pedagog at the collegiate level, and longtime chairman of the Department of Music at the University of Wyoming. Willman was a vanguard creator and influential exponent of twentiethcentury contemporary music. As chairman of the music department at the University of Wyoming, he is credited with rapidly expanding music arts within the institution. He led the development of a more comprehensive Music Department for aspiring academicians and professionals in performance, composition, education, and musicology. Between 1940 and 1950, enrollment in the Music Department quadrupled. Willman was founder of the Wyoming Music Teachers Association andwith Wyoming businessman and composer George William Hufsmith, Jr. , and Casper conductor Ernest Gilbert Hagen Willman was cofounder of the Grand Teton Music Festival in 1962.

In 1942, Willman married Regina Kastberg Hansen , also a composer. Born in Burns, Wyoming, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in music from the University of Wyoming in 1945 and a Master of Arts degree in music from the University of New Mexico in 1961. At Wyoming, she studied composition privately with Darius Milhaud and Roy Harris. She also studied music at a number of institutions in the United States and Europe, including the Juilliard and the Lausanne Conservatory in Switzerland. In 1956, after suffering from cancer foryears, Regina left Allan, and soon thereafter, they divorced. But they remained in close contact until she died in 1965, afteryears of cancer. Regina composed several classical pieces between the 1930s and 1960s, including

Source: Wikipedia