Biography
William Averitt
(b. 1948) is the composer of numerous works which have received performances throughout the United States and in Western Europe, Russia and Asia. He has received several composer fellowships, grants and commissions from a wide variety of sources such as the National Endowment for the Arts (twice), VMTA/MTNA (six times), Meet the Composer and the Atlanta Chamber Players. Other commissions have been completed for Missouri State University (“Whisper of the Dance,” premiere in 2017), the University of Missouri at Columbia (Black Pierrot, premiere in 2017), Texas Lutheran University (Where Dreams Fly, premiered in 2016 and The Deepness of the Blue, From Dreams and Scenes, premiered in 2012), Choral Arts of Seattle (Traveling Home, premiered in 2011 and The Dream Keeper, premiered in 2009), VMTA (The Memory of Shadows, premiered in 2007), organist Dudley Oakes (The Seventh Seal, premiered at the Washington National Cathedral in 2006), the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh (Lacrymae, premiered in 2003), Opus 3 Trio of Washington, DC (Harmonia, premiered in 2001) and Murray State University Concert Choir and Shenandoah Conservatory Chamber Choir (both for a cappella Latin motets for Spring 2001 tours of Italy). Nocturne, a song cycle for soprano and orchestra commissioned by the Maryland Symphony Orchestra for their 20th Anniversary season, was premiered in 2002. Other commissions have included works for Currents (a contemporary music ensemble in Richmond, VA), the Shippensburg (PA) Summer Music Festival, the Paducah (KY) Symphony Orchestra, the First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, SC (for their bicentennial celebrations), Sonus Ensemble of Washington, DC, the Youth Orchestras of Prince William (VA), former Shenandoah Conservatory Dance Division colleague Elizabeth Bergmann (through a Virginia Commission for the Arts grant), Shenandoah University and Winchester (VA) Musica Viva.
Other scores include a two-hour St. Matthew Passion for soloists, two choruses and orchestra co-commissioned by eleven southeastern university choral departments and first premiered on Good Friday 2000 in Columbia, SC under the direction of Larry Wyatt. This work was revised in 2009 performed in its new version in Columbia SC and at the Southern Division-ACDA Conference in Memphis in 2010.
In 1989, Averitt completed a major commission from the Hans Kindler Foundation of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC for a new work that was premiered there by the Verdehr Trio. Tripartita for violin, clarinet and piano has been taken into the Trio’s active repertoire, performed on tours in several cities including New York and Seoul, and released on compact disc by Crystal Records; the score is published by Subito. The Verdehrs, in conjunction with the Michigan State University Wind Symphony, commissioned a Triple Concerto with winds which was premiered at Michigan State University in 1996. In recent seasons, Tripartita has received numerous additional performances and appeared in the active repertoire of the Helios Trio of the Netherlands, among others.
Mr. Averitt’s 1991 score Afro-American Fragments (Langston Hughes) for SATB, soprano and piano 4-hands was the winning work of the 1992 Roger Wagner Center for Choral Studies Choral Composition Competition. This score has been performed by a number of professional choruses including Conspirare, the Washington Singers (Paul Hill), the Desert Chorale, the New Texas Festival, the Air Force Singing Sergeants, Kantorei (Denver, CO), Winchester Musica Viva and by numerous university choruses throughout the country. In the Spring 1996, Afro-American Fragments was the featured work performed by the Connecticut High School All-state Chorus. In 2004, Conspirare released three movements of Afro-American Fragments as part of their acclaimed CD . . . through the green fuse . . . More recently, Mr. Averitt has written two similarly scored cycles on Langston Hughes poetry: The Dream Keeper (Choral Arts of Seattle, premiered in 2009 and included on their award-winning CD Mornings Like This) and The Deepness of the Blue (Texas Lutheran University, premiered in 2012). The Deepness of the Blue has enjoyed a strong performance history, including at the 2015 ACDA National Convention (Choral Arts Northwest) and the 2016 ACDA Central Division Conference (Evansville University Choir). All three cycles were recorded by the UMKC Conservatory Singers and released as The Deepness of the Blue on MSR.
In the Fall 2002, Mr. Averitt was selected by the VIrginia Commission for the Arts as the recipient of one of twelve Virginia Artist Fellowships and, as a result, awarded a one-month residency at the Virginia Center for the Arts at Sweet Briar in 2003. He is a member of ASCAP, from whom he has received numerous ASCAPlus Standard Awards since 1991. His works have been published by E.C. Schirmer, Walton, Trevco, Treble Clef Press, Falls House Press, Little Piper, ALRY Publications, Fred Bock Music, Subito, Concordia and MMB Publications. His chamber music was the subject of a 1998 Florida State University doctoral treatise by Yuling Huang entitled The Music of William Averitt: Selected Chamber Works with Piano and the subject of a 2010 University of South Carolina doctoral treatise by Jennifer Adam entitled William Averitt’s “Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to St. Matthew”: An Analysis with Conducting Considerations.
Mr. Averitt also has been active as a conductor. He was Founder and, for ten seasons, Music Director of WInchester Musica Viva, a community-based professional-level chamber choir. In December 1988, he was presented the first annual “Artie” Award for Excellence in Music by the Shenandoah Arts Council as a reflection of his work with this ensemble in the Winchester area. In the late 1970s, he conducted several seasons with the Front Royal Oratorio Society. He was Founder/Music Director of Consort of Voices in 1995-96. From 1981 to 1987, he was Conductor of Orchestras and Opera at Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University.
Averitt, a native of Paducah, Kentucky, received the B.M. in Composition with highest honors from Murray (KY) State University and the M.M. and D.M. in Composition from the Florida State University through an N.D.E.A. Fellowship. In addition, he did summer studies at Tanglewood (Bruno Maderna Memorial Fellowship); Yale (Ellen Battel Stoeckel Fellowship); the Haydn Performance Seminar in Eisenstadt, Austria; the Wolf Trap - American University in Washington, DC; Bach Performance Seminars in Stuttgart, Germany and Brattleboro, Vermont; and at the N.E.H.-sponsored “Seminar in Editing Music of the Classic Period” at the University of Maryland. His composition teachers included James Woodard at Murray State, John Boda at Florida State and Betsy Jolas at Tanglewood.
