William Purvis

A member of the Sarasota Music Festival faculty since 2005

A native of western Pennsylvania, William Purvis, French horn, pursues a multifaceted career in the U.S. and abroad as horn soloist, chamber musician, conductor, and educator. A passionate advocate of new music, Mr. Purvis has participated in numerous premieres as hornist and conductor, including horn concertos by Peter Lieberson, Bayan Northcott, Paul Lansky and Krzysztof Penderecki (American premiere); trios for violin, horn, and piano by Poul Ruders and Paul Lansky; Steven Stuckey’s Sonate en Forme des Préludes with Emanuel Ax as part of his Perspectives Series at Carnegie Hall; Ezra Laderman's Brass Trio and Quartet for Brass Trio and Piano: and recent premieres by Elliott Carter, Retracing II for Solo Horn and Nine by Five with the New York Woodwind Quintet.

Mr. Purvis is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Yale Brass Trio and Triton Horn Trio, and is an emeritus member of Orpheus. A frequent guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Boston Chamber Music Society, he has also collaborated with the Tokyo, Juilliard, Orion, Brentano, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, and Fine Arts string quartets. His extensive list of recordings spans an unusually broad range from original instrument performance and standard repertoire through contemporary solo and chamber music to recordings of contemporary music as conductor. Recent recordings include the Horn Concerto of Peter Lieberson on Bridge (which received a Grammy® and a WQXR Gramophone Award); works of Schumann; Etudes and Parodies for Violin, Horn and Piano of Paul Lansky; the Wind Quintet of Schoenberg with the New York Woodwind Quintet; and the Quintet for Horn and Strings by Richard Wernick with the Juilliard Quartet. He is currently Professor in the Practice of Horn and Chamber Music at the Yale School of Music, where he is also Coordinator of Winds and Brasses, and serves as Director of the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments.