William Eddins
Encyclopedia
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
. He is the Music Director of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra
Edmonton Symphony Orchestra
As the professional orchestra of Alberta's creative capital city, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra presents over 85 concerts a year of symphonic music in all genres, from classical to country...
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Eddins started playing piano at age 5 after his parents purchased a piano at a garage sale. He studied with David Effron
David Effron
David Effron is an American conductor and educator. After earning a Bachelor of Music degree in piano from the University of Michigan and a Master of Music degree in piano from Indiana University, he worked as an assistant to Wolfgang Sawallisch at the Cologne Opera...
at the Eastman School of Music
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
in Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, and completed his degree in piano performance in 1983 at age 18, one of the youngest graduates in the institution's history. He subsequently studied conducting with Daniel Lewis
Daniel Lewis (conductor)
Daniel George Lewis is an American orchestral conductor and pedagogue. He is a University Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern California .- Education :...
at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
Thornton School of Music
USC Thornton School of Music
The University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, founded in 1884 and dedicated in 1999, is one of the premier music schools in the United States...
. In 1987, he was a founding member of the New World Symphony Orchestra
New World Symphony Orchestra
The New World Symphony is the United States' only full-time orchestral academy preparing musicians for careers in symphony orchestras and ensembles...
in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
.
Eddins has served as Associate Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra
Minnesota Orchestra
The Minnesota Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Emil Oberhoffer founded the orchestra as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1903, and it gave its first performance on November 5 of that year. In 1968 the orchestra changed to its name to the Minnesota Orchestra...
, Resident Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
, Principal Guest Conductor of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra
RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra
The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra is the concert music orchestra of Raidió Teilifís Éireann...
, and assistant to Daniel Barenboim
Daniel Barenboim
Daniel Barenboim, KBE is an Argentinian-Israeli pianist and conductor. He has served as music director of several major symphonic and operatic orchestras and made numerous recordings....
at the Berlin State Opera
Berlin State Opera
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...
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In 2000, Eddins received the Seaver Conducting Award
Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award
The Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award was an award for conductors in the United States.-History:The award was established in 1985 as the Affiliate Artists' Seaver Conducting Award. The award was being given every two or three years. The award was conceived by the Seaver...
(funded by the Seaver Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
), a triennial grant awarded to exceptionally gifted young American conductors.
As a conductor, Eddins is eclectic in his preferences. A classicist in his approach to the music of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, he also favors North American repertoire in his programming. Music by Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
, Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
, and Antheil
George Antheil
George Antheil was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author and inventor. A self-described "Bad Boy of Music", his modernist compositions amazed and appalled listeners in Europe and the US during the 1920s with their cacophonous celebration of mechanical devices.Returning permanently to...
figure prominently in his performances. He is fascinated with the music of Lili Boulanger
Lili Boulanger
Lili Boulanger was a French composer, the younger sister of the noted composer and composition teacher Nadia Boulanger.-Early years:A Parisian-born child prodigy, who was good at piano...
. He has collaborated with contemporary composers such as Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, Steven Stucky
Steven Stucky
Steven Stucky is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he studied music in the public schools and, privately, viola with Herbert Preston, conducting with Leo Scheer, and...
, Oskar Morawetz
Oskar Morawetz
Oskar Morawetz, CM, O.Ont was a Canadian composer.Morawetz was born in Světlá nad Sázavou, Bohemia . He studied piano and theory in Prague and, following the Nazi takeover of his country in 1938, studied in Vienna and Paris, always staying one step ahead of the invading Nazis...
, Malcolm Forsyth
Malcolm Forsyth
Malcolm Forsyth, CM was a South African and Canadian trombonist and composer. His daughter is National Arts Centre Orchestra cellist Amanda Forsyth....
, Allan Gilliland
Allan Gilliland
Allan Gilliland is a contemporary Canadian composer.Gilliland moved to Canada in 1972 and settled in Edmonton, Alberta. He received a diploma in Jazz Studies from Humber College, and degrees in performance and composition from the University of Alberta...
, John Estacio
John Estacio
John Estacio is a contemporary Canadian composer.-Life and career:Estacio was born in Newmarket, Ontario. Raised in the farming community of the Holland Marsh, Ontario, Estacio took piano and accordion lessons, and played church organ every Sunday...
, and Aaron Jay Kernis
Aaron Jay Kernis
Aaron Jay Kernis is an American composer and professor at the Yale School of Music.-Biography:Aaron Jay Kernis is Jewish, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and studied at the Manhattan School of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory, and Yale University .,Notable works include the...
.
As pianist, Eddins has recorded solo piano works by Beethoven, Debussy and William Albright
William Albright (musician)
William Albright was an American composer, pianist and organist.Albright was born in Gary, Indiana, and began learning the piano at the age of five, and attended the Juilliard Preparatory Department , the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan , where he studied composition with...
on his own CD label. He has recorded cello concertos by Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
, William Schuman
William Schuman
William Howard Schuman was an American composer and music administrator.-Life:Born in Manhattan in New York City to Samuel and Rachel Schuman, Schuman was named after the twenty-seventh U.S. president, William Howard Taft, although his family preferred to call him Bill...
and William Perry
William P. Perry
William P. Perry is an American composer and television producer.-Life and career:Born in Elmira, New York in 1930, he attended Harvard University and studied with Paul Hindemith, Walter Piston, and Randall Thompson...
for Naxos Records
Naxos Records
Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...
. An avid chamber musician, he also conducts works by Mozart, Beethoven, Gershwin, Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
, Franck
César Franck
César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....
, Fauré
Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
and Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
from the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
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Eddins is the producer and host of a series of podcasts called Classical Connections, dedicated to exploring the history of classical music, and available on his website.