Will black

Violin, Piano, Saxophone

He/Him

Originally from Maine, William Black is a composer, producer, performer, and music teacher specializing in music theory, ambient music, and 20th-century Western Art music. His musical journey started at age six with the violin before he picked up the piano and saxophone, which introduced him to the world of jazz. He began his music education career in high school by giving music lessons at the local early childhood center. After achieving numerous accolades in the high school jazz scene, including the Outstanding Musicianship Award at the Berklee Jazz Festival and First Chair in the Maine All-State Jazz Festival, William went on to study composition and music theory at Occidental College under Adam Schoenberg, Irene Girton, and Dina Ormenyi; he graduated summa cum laude and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society.

He is the two-time winner of the Elinor Remick Warren Award for significant achievement in music composition, once for acoustic composition and once for electronic composition. William emphasizes the importance of a well-rounded musician who understands all aspects of music, including theory, performance, history, and production. His style of teaching is centered around adaptation to the needs of each student and emotional connection to the music, aiming to create a classroom that fosters the feeling of fun and motivates one to continually grow as a musician.

He firmly believes in the mediative and healing power of music, which he explores both in his approach in the classroom and in his Harold Budd-esque ambient compositions that feature a mixture of piano and electronics. In addition to composing and arranging customized pieces for his students at Brooklyn Music School, William continues to work on his ambient music and other genres of electronic music. He is also a freelance audio engineer and is currently commissioned to compose a song cycle based on the poems of James Joyce.