William C. White’s career as a musician has taken him to plenty of places. After graduate school, he served as the assistant conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony. He’s worked with community, professional and youth orchestras as a conductor. He grew up in the Washington, D.C., suburbs and has lived in Chicago, Indiana and Portland. He’s currently a resident of Seattle. Next up, he’ll serve as the artistic director of the Sedona Symphony. He started planning the symphony’s upcoming season in February. His first concert will be in October. In this role, he will invite guest artists to play, hire musicians to be in the orchestra, rehearse the orchestra and direct the orchestra during live shows. Music has been an important part of his life since he was a child. “I just felt drawn to music, and I started writing music and conducting music when I was a high school student, and I just totally fell in love with it,” he says.
He started playing viola in fourth grade. Will says he was drawn to the instrument’s darker, richer hue. He played all throughout high school and sang in college and played the piano. He studied music in college at the University of Chicago and earned a master’s degree in conducting from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He’s also a composer – a unique skill for a conductor to have. “Those are very useful skills as a conductor, because on the piano, you have the orchestra at your fingertips,” he says. “And if you play a string instrument, then you are familiar with the technique of the grand majority of the players in an orchestra. And if you can sing, then you can express yourself at the base level and show how music should be inflected. So between the three of those, I got a really good hands-on understanding of how music works.”
A few years ago, he appeared as a guest conductor for the Sedona Symphony. He rehearsed the orchestra but a snow storm upset the performance. Since many of the musicians were based in Flagstaff, the vast majority of the musicians couldn’t attend. But the show must go on. So he played the piano, and the guest artist played the violin. But the show was memorable and not just for him. The symphony contacted him and asked him to be the artistic director. He’s looking forward to conducting an orchestra that will be playing classical music by the likes of Mozart, Beethoven and Bach, among other greats. Like many who visit Red Rock Country, he’s also looking forward to soaking up the city’s natural beauty. Above all, he appreciates Sedona’s appetite for the arts and is ready to share his passion for music. “I am motivated by nothing but my love of music and of working with musicians and of what music can do to brighten and inspire a community of people,” he says. Visit willcwhite.com to learn more. – By Teresa K. Traverse
