William Anderson

William Anderson is a composer, guitarist, ensemble director, and champion of new American music. He has performed with many of New York City's finest ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera Chamber Players, Sequitur, the Group for Contemporary Music, and the Da Capo Chamber Players. Artistic Director of the Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music, he has been a soloist in festivals and ensembles such as the Bang on a Can Festival, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and Modern Works. In 1985 he founded the Cygnus Ensemble, which has built a substantial repertoire of chamber music with plucked strings. With Cygnus, he has performed in Denmark, Holland, Poland, Russia, Mexico, and California. Cygnus also offers a series of three concerts each season at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, presenting important new works by American composers. He performed at Tanglewood from 1981 through 1988. In 1982 he began studying with David Starobin, who introduced him to the music community in New York City. He soaked up contemporary American music and, in the last 15 years, he began composing works that draw on that experience, with a particular concern for finding a coherent way to make maximalism and minimalism work together. Mr. Anderson teaches guitar at Sarah Lawrence College and Queens College.