William Moersch is Professor and
Chair of Percussion at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Internationally renowned as a marimba virtuoso, chamber and symphonic
percussionist, recording artist, and educator, he has appeared as soloist with
orchestras and in recital throughout North and South America, Europe, the Far
East, and Australia. A regularly featured artist at international percussion
festivals, Mr. Moersch has performed on more than seventy recordings and is
perhaps best known for commissioning over the past thirty years much of the prominent
modern repertoire for marimba, from composers including Irwin Bazelon, Richard
Rodney Bennett, Martin Bresnick, Jacob Druckman, Eric Ewazen, David Lang, Paul
Lansky, Libby Larsen, Steven Mackey, Akemi Naito, Roger Reynolds, Gunther
Schuller, Joseph Schwantner,
John Serry, Andrew Thomas, Alejandro Viñao, and Charles Wuorinen. In
addition, he was the first marimbist ever to receive a National Endowment for
the Arts Solo Recitalist Fellowship and has also been honored by NEA Consortium
Commissioning and Recording grants.
Prior to his appointment at the University of Illinois, Mr.
Moersch was a free-lance musician in New York City for over two decades. He
performed with the American Symphony, Metropolitan Opera, New Jersey Symphony,
New York Chamber Symphony, New York City Opera, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande,
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, as a featured soloist in the New York Shakespeare
Festival’s Broadway production of The
Pirates of Penzance, and on numerous
motion picture soundtracks. Mr. Moersch also created graduate degree programs
in marimba performance at the Peabody Conservatory and Rutgers University and
has presented master classes throughout the world. Currently, he is Principal
Timpanist of Sinfonia da Camera and the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra,
Artistic Director of New Music Marimba, and an Artist Endorser for Pearl / Adams
Percussion, SABIAN cymbals, Grover Pro Percussion, and Innovative Percussion
mallets.