About William
“There
are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle;
you can
live as if everything is a miracle.” — Albert Einstein
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William Zeitler has been a musician since age 5, when Santa brought a piano to his house. (The chimney was never the same.) Intrigued, he figured out how to climb up onto the bench in spite of his short legs, and started spending hours and hours trying to figure out how to play it. To preserve their sanity, his parents started William on lessons. When asked if his parents made him practice, he says: "No, my parents had to make me STOP!"
William endured 4 years at the California Institute of the Arts, for which he was awarded a B.F.A. Since then, William has been a freelance professional composer, pianist, organist, and glass armonica player.
"I don't think we appreciate how powerful and helpful Music can be—we've reduced it to crass filling-in-the-silence in elevators. Instead, Music can serve so much more positive ends. I love writing scores for educational films—education is nothing but good. And the stories of the pioneers of mathematics, science, and engineering are as passionate and heartbreaking as any of the great artists. (See Galois, Galileo, and Tesla respectively.) In my film scores I try 
to capture some of the Passion and Wonder with which these pioneers contemplated our magical world, as they risked all to understand some small part of it.
In fact, in ALL of my music I try to capture some faint echo of the Flaming Heart we experience when we truly connect with our Magical World—whether that be artistically, scientifically, or with our True Self.
William's musical activities include:
* Composing for his CDs: he has released 10 CDs to date.
* Composing film scores: his most recent being the score for "VIRTIS, the Visible and InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer"—the story of a space probe, from concept to images being sent back, and the people behind it.
* Performing on the glass armonica: Benjamin Franklin's genius transformed the wet-finger-around-the-wineglass party trick into a magical musical instrument.
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Invented in 1761, it was very popular in Europe in Franklin's day—even Mozart and Beethoven composed for it. But musical fashions changed and it all but disappeared in the early 1800's. William is one of only a handful of glass armonica players worldwide. To learn more about the glass armonica, visit William's website devoted to it: www.GlassArmonica.com
William has performed worldwide on his glass armonica, and has been featured in film scores (the most recent being HBO's Taking Chance).
William has also been commissioned to compose and perform music for glass armonica and orchestra for the Seattle Philharmonic and Orchestra Seattle, and choral music (with and without the glass armonica) for I Cantori di Carmel (Monterey, CA), to name just a few.
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* Count Bachula: the not-so-great-great-great uncle of the famous J.S.Bach—on the Transylvania side. In the tradition of P.D.Q.Bach, some say William resembles Count Bachula, but of course that is ridiculous. See the Count's website, and his album Gothic Christmas.
* Sacred Music: William is 'chief musician' for a Taizé service (almost entirely music—no sermon!) on the first Sunday evening of each month at Redlands United Methodist Church (Redlands, CA). William also performs on his glass armonica at these Taizé services.
Click here for William's catalog of CDs.
A suggestive list of William's clients and performances would include:
- 711 Productions (Hong Kong)
- Akron Symphony (OH)
- Alaska Airlines
- Bellevue Botanical Gardens (Bellevue, WA)
- Beverly Hills Affaire in the Garden (CA)
- Boeing
- Burbank Public Library (CA)
- Calabasas Pumpkin Festival (CA)
- California State Capitol Museum
- Cerritos Community College
- Christ Unity Church (San Diego)
- Close To My Heart Corp.
- The Cosmic American Music Festival (Joshua Tree, CA)
- Crested Butte Music Festival (CO)
- Daughters of the American Revolution (CA Regional)
- Disneyland Resort
- Echo Bay Historical Society (Echo Bay, WA)
- Franklin Institute (Philadelphia, PA)
- Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research (Seattle, WA)
- Getty Research Institute (Seattle, WA)
- Hokum Hall (West Seattle, WA)
- Huntington Library (Pasadena, CA)
- International Printers Museum (Carson, CA)
- Inventor's Museum (Akron, OH)
- Kronos String Quartet
- Los Angeles County Fair
- Los Angeles Unified School District
- Laguna Beach Sawdust Festival (CA)
- Legacy Academy (Valencia, CA)
- Mission Viejo Country Club (CA)
- Missouri Historical Society (as part of the Franklin 300th Exhibit)
- Microsoft
- Modesto Art Museum (CA)
- Murphy & Associates (Seattle, WA)
- New Town Plaza (Hong Kong)
- Orange Blossom Festival (Riverside, CA)
- Oregon Country Fair
- Orchestra Seattle (WA)
- Qualcomm Corp.
- Questhaven (Escondido, CA)
- Seattle Philharmonic (WA)
- Seattle Symphony (WA)
- Studio City Rotary Club Art Fair (CA)
- Thornton Winery (Temecula, CA)
- UC Riverside (CA)
- UCLA Neuroscience Institute
- Victoria Gardens (Rancho Cucamonga, CA)
- VillageFest (Palm Springs, CA)
- Warner Brothers Studios
- Weyerhauser
- Whole Children, Whole Planet Expo (Los Angeles, CA)
- Woodland Hills Rotary Club Art Faire (CA)
Film scores in which William has played include:
- Wooly Boys starring Peter Fonda and Kris Kristofferson. Music by two-time Emmy winning composer Hummie Mann
- King of California starring Michael Douglas. Music by David Robbins.
- Terra
- Taking Chance (an HBO Special)
- Step Brothers
- Welcome To People (film score by A.R. Rahman
With many local TV appearances throughout the country William has been interviewed and is featured in articles by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, U.S. News & World Report and on NPR’s radio program “The Morning Edition”.
Contact William here or call 323-791-8112.
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