Biography

Conductor/Pianist William Noll is Artistic Director for StayInMay Festival, Classic Chamber Concerts, the Fifth Avenue Chamber Orchestra, and guest conductor for Opera Naples. In addition, he is the newly appointed Music Director & Conductor of the Bach Ensemble. He is a performance veteran of major concert halls in the United States, Europe, Central America, Russia, and China. He has conducted symphonic, choral and operatic repertoire from Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York, to festivals and tours in Italy, Belgium, Costa Rica, and China. Last summer he travelled to Russia to serve as a judge for the Lotar-Shevchenko International Piano Competition, sponsored by the Boris Yeltsin Foundation. He was also interviewed with Maestro Mikhail Pletnev for an international TV press conference. Last Fall, Maestro Noll went to Moscow to give master classes in piano at the famed Gnessin Acadamy.

Mr. Noll has held positions with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Opera, the Choral Guild of Atlanta, Providence Opera Theatre, the Miami International Piano Festival; and with summer festivals in Graz, Aspen, Spoleto, Lecce, and Brevard. He has also conducted for the New York City Opera, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall, New Mexico Symphony, Savannah Symphony, Opera Orchestra of New York, Sandy Springs Chamber Orchestra, National Orchestra of Costa Rica, Ukraine’s Odessa Philharmonic, Naples Philharmonic, ArtsNaples World Festival Orchestra, and the Fifth Avenue Chamber Orchestra.

During recent seasons his conducting highlights included the US premier of Dick Hyman's Ragtime Concerto for Clarinet, a production of Verdi's Nabucco, all six of Bach's Brandenburgh Concertos, and appearing as piano soloist in Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Additionally, he has lead the schedule for the twentieth anniversary season of Classic Chamber Concerts as well as a collaboration with Maestro Ramón Tebar in a production of Peter Brook’s La tragédie de Carmen for the ArtsNaples World Festival.

Maestro Noll gave the inaugural command performance for Prince Edward and Sophie, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, on their new Steinway at their royal residence in Bagshot Park. Among the honored guests were the Trustees of the Duke of Edinburgh Foundation.

After a decade of only performing jazz piano, he re-established his classical piano career by appearing in New York City, as guest soloist, with the Jupiter Symphony Orchestra and conductor Jens Nygaard in performances of the virtuoso Concerto No.2 by Xaver Scharwenka. He appeared as soloist with the Dekalb Symphony in Atlanta with performances of the Piano Concerto by Aaron Copland in honor of the composer's 100th birthday celebration. He was invited to perform with Steven Byess and the Tupelo Symphony in performances of Michael Dougherty's Le Tombeau de Liberace. As a conductor/pianist, Mr. Noll has collaborated with Pablo Casals, James Levine, Robert Shaw, Zubin Mehta, Julius Rudel, Milton Katims, John Nelson, Eve Queler, Jorge Mester, Christian Badea, and Donald Vorhees, among many others.

Maestro Noll’s catalog of commercial recordings includes choral, symphonic and jazz repertoire on labels such as Newport Classic, InterSound, Pro-Jazz, Time-Life, and Sony. He also has many TV and radio appearances to his credit; choral concerts, jazz orchestra, live simulcasts, and specials for PBS, CBS, NPR, Radio Free-Europe, and over six years of hosting “Fanfare,” an Atlanta weekly radio feature.

Additionally, he has served as Music Director for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company for three decades. He has also served on panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the USIA, Fulton County Arts Council, Bronx Arts Panel, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Georgia Council for the Arts, and the Classical Nomination Committee for the Grammy Awards. Maestro Noll was recently honored with the "Stars in the Arts" award, given by the Collier County United Arts Council, for his musical and humanitarian efforts on behalf of numerous charitable organizations in the region.

As a resident of Naples, Florida, and Manhattan, he continues to assist the careers of classical, popular and jazz musicians through the offices of Mayfair Artists Representatives, a full-service music consultancy, for which he is the Executive Director.

Maestro Noll has also written numerous articles for the editorial and arts pages of the Atlanta Constitution and the Naples Daily News.

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