William Riley

Guitar; Guitar Ensemble;Guitar

William Riley maintains an active schedule as a guitarist and educator. Currently a lecturer and the Director of Classical Guitar studies at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, he is also on the music faculty at New England Conservatory Preparatory School, and teaches a large studio of young guitarists as Director of the Childbloom Guitar Program of Boston.

Riley has won prizes in several national and international competitions, including first prize in the ECU National Guitar Competition 2000, fourth prize at the 10th International Guitar Competition at the Portland, OR Guitar Festival, and semi-finalist at the 2001 Guitar Foundation of America International Competition. He has served as a competition judge for both the 2004 Northeast Guitar Festival and the 2007 and 2008 Boston GuitarFest International Competitions.  In 2010, he joined the board of directors for the Boston Classical Guitar Society, where he serves as newsletter editor.

A frequent performer as both a soloist and chamber musician, he has also recorded and premiered new works for solo guitar, including Remembrances of Jerusalem by Israeli composer Lior Navok, for which he was praised for his "insightful playing" by Classical Net, and called a “fine soloist” by American Record Guide. His transcription and recording of Enrique Granados’ Spanish Dance No. 12 is featured on that composer’s Wikipedia page.  In 2005 he appeared as a soloist on the Juilliard School’s Composer’s Series, and for the New York Young Musician’s Forum, giving the world premiere of Kati Agocs’ Secret Gardens for solo guitar. Riley recently arranged and recorded the music for a newly-released book and CD of lullabies for the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, with lyric soprano Stephanie Northcutt. Chamber music recitals include appearances with Music at Eden’s Edge; performances for the Noon Concert Series at the Boston Athenaeum; King’s Chapel Noon Series; and a performance on the First Monday at Jordan Hall Concert Series. He is also a founding member of the Quadrivium Guitar Quartet, which completed a 40 concert outreach tour in rural Kentucky schools in 2002, performing for over 10,000 students.

B.M. (University of Texas at Austin), M.M. with honors (NEC); studies with Eliot Fisk. 

2011-10-11