William Winant
William Karl Winant (born February 11, 1953 in Brooklyn ) is an American percussionist who has emerged as an interpreter of new music , but has also worked across genres with musicians such as Sonic Youth , Mr. Bungle , John Zorn and Oingo Boingo .
Live and act
Winant studied first at York University with James Tenney (Bachelor 1978), then at Mills College with Steve Reich and John Bergamo (Master 1982). First he worked as a timpanist with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco and as main percussionist with the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra . He is currently principal percussionist with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and the Chamber Ensemble of John Zorn . Since 1995 he has also been a percussionist in the avant rock band Mr. Bungle .
Winant was already involved in the American premiere of John Cage's Lecture on the Weather in 1976. He interpreted Cages Four6 at the world premiere in 1992 (which is dedicated to him alongside Pauline Oliveros , Joan La Barbara and Leonard Stein ). Composers who have written for Winant include Chris Brown , Alvin Curran , Fred Frith , Peter Garland , Lou Harrison , Terry Riley , David Rosenboom , Sōmei Satō , Wadada Leo Smith, and John Zorn.
With the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio, which was artist in residence at Mills College between 1984 and 1992 , he premiered more than 25 new works for violin, piano and drums at important festivals and concert venues around the world. He also played under the direction of Pierre Boulez at the Ojai Music Festival 1989 ; he has also made first recordings of works by Wendy Reid . Especially in the performance of Harrison's works, Winant often proved to be a catalyst that facilitated collaboration across genre boundaries; this applies to the premiere of his Rhymes with Silver (with Yo-Yo Ma and the Mark Morris Dance Group) as well as to Harrison's La koro sutro (1988) and SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century (1999, with Sonic Youth ).
Winant continued to play with the Kronos Quartet , Anthony Braxton , Cecil Taylor , Roscoe Mitchell , Keith Jarrett , Frank Zappa , Jon Hassell ( Vernal Equinox ) and Christian Wolff . He was also involved in recordings with music by Luc Ferrari , Pauline Oliveros, Mike Patton , Karlheinz Stockhausen , Siouxsie and the Banshees , The Ex and White Out with Jim O'Rourke . With Takehisa Kosugi and Christian Wolff he created the music for performances for the 50th anniversary of the dance company of Merce Cunningham at the Tate Modern . He played on Danny Elfman's soundtrack to Tim Burton 's Return to Batman (1992) and recorded music with David Lindley and Henry Kaiser for Werner Herzog's Encounters at World's End (2007). In the group Wake he toured with Frank Gratkowski and Chris Brown and introduced himself at the Donaueschinger Musiktage .
Winant only released a debut album under his own name in 2013 with Five American Percussion Pieces , which contains pieces by Lou Harrison, James Tenney, Michael Byron and Alvin Curran. In 2014, the album Cage: The 10,000 Things , in which he was involved as an artist, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance . In 2016 he received a large, unlimited grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in recognition of his groundbreaking work as a contemporary percussionist. With Tania Chen , Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith he released the album Ocean of Storms (2017).
Winant is visiting professor of music at the University of California, Santa Cruz and Mills College.
Web links
- Web presence
- Biography (Foundation for Contemporary Arts)
- William Winant at Allmusic (English)
- William Winant at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Winant, William |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Winant, William Karl |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American percussionist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 11, 1953 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Brooklyn |