- Born
- Died
- Birth nameWillis H. Schaefer
- An Emmy Award and Pulitzer Prize nominee composer, conductor, and arranger, Will Schaefer was educated at Mary D. Bradford High School in Kenosha (Distinguished Alumni Award), De Paul University (BM, Distinguished Alumni Award), and Northwestern University (MA and graduate work extending into study for a Doctor of Music degree). During the Korean War, he was assistant conductor and arranger for the 5th Army Band, Special Services at Fort Sheridan, Illinois (1951-1954) where he wrote music for Radio Free Europe, the Voice of America, and local stations. Coming to New York after his military service, he wrote for well-known music publishers and composed, conducted and arranged for radio, television, commercials (Pillsbury, Post Cereals, Ford, Chevrolet and over seven hundred others), industrial films and records. While there, he arranged for the Buddy Rich and Count Basie bands and thirteen Broadway musicals ("What Makes Sammy Run?", "Kicks & Company", "The Prince and the Showgirl", "Spotlight" and others). In Los Angeles from 1966 for Walt Disney Studios, he orchestrated about thirty episodes of The Magical World of Disney (1954) (aka "The Wonderful World of Disney") and sections of many Disney films plus music for the live attractions "Pirates of the Caribbean", "America the Beautiful", "Bear Country", "It's a Small World", and "Innoventions". His over-150 songs and instrumentals include "Midnight Matinee", "Caribeguine, "Autumn Beguine", "Overture - Fanfare and Capriccio", and "Ballada" plus others.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Louis Rugani
- Will Schaefer created music tracks for over seven hundred TV and radio commercials, virtually every product promoted over the airwaves, and was the recipient of three Clio Awards for his scores to the Alcoa, Praise Soap and American Airlines television campaigns in the mid-1960s. In 1976 DePaul University, his Alma Mater, bestowed a Distinguished Alumni award on him in 1976, and in 1994 the Mary D. Bradford High School in Kenosha also honored him with a Distinguished Alumni Award. Will Schaefer wrote over two thousand compositions and arrangements in addition to his over 170 film and television scores, many of which are published throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. During his early career in New York, Will Schaefer arranged and conducted for Morgana King, Count Basie, Gisele MacKenzie, Carol Burnett, Edie Adams and other popular recording artists of the day.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Lou Rugani
- Will Schaefer was a fifteen-year contributor to Walt Disney Studios' music library since the late 1960s, and he also created music tracks for over seven hundred television and radio commercials and was the recipient of three Clio Awards for his scores to the 1960s Alcoa, American Airlines and Praise Soap advertising campaigns. His 1976 original Bicentennial concert work "The Sound of America" for symphony orchestra, concert band and mixed choir was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His score to the Disney film "The Sky Trap" (1979) was nominated for an Emmy Award. Will Schaefer wrote over two thousand compositions and arrangements in addition to his over one hundred seventy contributions to television programs and motion pictures. Over one hundred and sixty of his works are published throughout the United States, Europe and Japan, and many are available on recordings. During his early career in New York, Will Schaefer arranged and conducted for Morgana King, Count Basie, Gisele MacKenzie, Carol Burnett, Edie Adams and other artists, and wrote orchestrations for artists appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show, the Tonight Show, Jackie Gleason Show, and Sid Caesar and Max Liebman Specials. During that period, he created orchestrations for a number of Broadway musicals including "What Makes Sammy Run?" starring Steve Lawrence and Sally Ann Howes, "Kicks & Co." with Burgess Meredith, Noel Coward's "The Prince and the Showgirl" starring Jose Ferrer and Florence Henderson, and "Spotlight" in 1979 starring Gene Barry. Will Schaefer composed and conducted forty episodes of Walt Disney's "Wonderful World of Color", wrote most of the special arrangements for one hundred twenty "New Mickey Mouse Club" television programs, and created orchestrations for some fifteen Disney pictures. All across the Disneyland, Disney World, EPCOT Center, Tokyo Disneyland and Euro Disneyland theme parks, Will Schaefer's music is heard integrating many of the rides and attractions including Main Street U.S.A. and Sleeping Beauty Castle. For the "Disney On Ice" productions, he transcribed musical segments of "Beauty and the Beast" and "Aladdin". For other Hollywood studios, Will Schaefer composed and conducted original scores for "Barnaby Jones", "LaVerne and Shirley", "Gunsmoke", "I Dream of Jeannie", "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century", "Hogan's Heroes", and the Michael Ritchie film "Smile" with Bruce Dern and Barbara Feldon. With Hoyt Curtin of Hanna-Barbera, Will Schaefer scored many of the Saturday-morning animated television series including "The Yogi Bear Show", "The Flintstones", "Scooby Doo, Where Are You!", "Godzilla: The Series", "Super Friends", and "Battle of the Planets". Will Schaefer's pops orchestrations for symphony orchestras have been performed by the Boston Pops, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Grant Park Orchestra of Chicago, the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the BBC Radio Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, Brussels New Concert Orchestra, Villa-Lobos Concert Orchestra, and numerous others. For "Forgotten Heroes" (1990), Will conducted the Prague Symphony Orchestra in his original score. Will Schaefer attended the Chicago Conservatory of Music and earned his Bachelor of Music degree from DePaul University. His graduate work at Northwestern University was interrupted by military service with the Fifth Army Band near Chicago, where he composed, arranged and conducted weekly radio and television programs for Voice of America and Armed Forces Radio Network broadcasts. Will Schaefer composed and arranged for Doc Severinsen's Tonight Show Band for nearly thirty years, and for eight years was a faculty member of the film-scoring program at the University of Southern California, teaching advanced film orchestration and composition. From 1999, Will Schaefer composed complete motion picture and television main titles for SONOTON Music International in Munich, Germany, recorded by the Budapest Symphony, the DePaul University Wind Ensemble and a London studio orchestra. Will Schaefer's memberships included ASCAP, the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers, the American Federation of Musicians Locals 47 and 802, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the American Film Institute, and the Society for the Preservation of Film Music.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Lou Rugani
- Spouse?(1964 - 1984) (divorced)
- He received an Emmy nomination (Best Musical Score) for The Sky Trap / Trampa en el cielo (1979).
- Received a Pulitzer Prize for his concert piece "The Sound of America" for the U.S. bicentennial celebration in 1976.
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