William J. Ballard

William J. Ballard (born 1922 in Opelousas , Louisiana ; † August 2, 2006 in Ashland , Oregon ) was an American choir director, music teacher and scholar.

Ballard studied singing and music theory at Chicago Musical College and music history and literature at Northwestern University . As a Fulbright scholar, he studied in Florence from 1952 to 1953. It was here that he discovered the madrigal comedy L'Amfiparnaso by Orazio Vecchi , which he arranged for performances with The Tudor Singers , a professional choir that he founded in 1949 and directed until 1970. A tape recording of the work from the 1950s has been digitally restored by Alliance Publications .

Over the years Ballard has served as church music director in Waukegan, Chicago, Evanton, and Glencoe, Illinois, and has directed various community choirs. From 1954 to 1964 he was director of the Commonwealth Edison Choraliers and from 1962 to 1970 of the Elgin Choral Union . From 1954 to 1970 he was director of choral organizations and professor of choral literature at Northwestern University in Evanston. He then headed the music department at Ely High School in Cambridge, Great Britain for a year and was Professor of Music History and Conducting at the Centenary College of Louisiana from 1972 to 1974 . He directed the San Francisco Boys Chorus until 1985 , then founded the Singing Boys of San Francisco Bay , of which he was director until 1988.

Ballard has edited and published works by the old masters Vecchi, Adriano Banchieri , Alessandro Striggio , Marco da Gagliano , Claudio Monteverdi , Clément Janequin and Luca Marenzio for performances in the USA, with some of the texts being translated into English.

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personal data
SURNAME	Ballard, William J.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American music educator, choir director, and musicologist
DATE OF BIRTH	1922
PLACE OF BIRTH	Opelousas , Louisiana
DATE OF DEATH	August 2, 2006
Place of death	Ashland (Oregon)