About William

Listening Suggestions

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William's "Real" Biography

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?"

—Kahlil Gibran

William Zeitler ("ZITE-ler") writes:

I've been playing piano since I was 5 years old, and composing since I was 8. I was blessed with two great music teachers in my youth—Jack Reynolds (Monterey, CA) who gave me a good solid start, and Robert Cummings, under whose guidance I covered the standard college-level music theory (harmony, counterpoint, etc.) by the time I was 14, and tremendously advanced my keyboard skills. A degree from Cal-Arts rounded out my formal education.

But sometimes "Life is what happens when you're busy making plans..." My parents divorced when I was 11, a couple years later Mom remarried. My new step-father was nice enough at first, but it didn't take long for his violent side to emerge. Things got so bad that finally my youngest brother put an end to his misery with a bullet to his head. He was 13 (I was 16).

That was horror enough, but, incredibly, things got worse. We were all in an ongoing state of shock mixed with guilt and grief beyond imagining, on top of which my step-father became even more violent and irrational. I was going to Cal-Arts through all of this, dreading coming home from school each day.

Of course an experience like this takes its toll—divorce and bankruptcy would mark additional unhappy milestones in my Journey. But after decades of Inner Work, and a lot of help from others—professional and otherwise—I'm a whole person again, finally at peace with myself.

Of course this Journey has had a huge impact on my music. On the day my brother killed himself, after the police and paramedics left, and after my step-father and I cleaned up the 'mess' my brother left on the floor and wall, I went into my room, closed the door, and just started playing Bach. For hours, until sleep finally overtook me. No stranger to grief himself, Bach's music nevertheless has a quality of "God is in his heaven and all is right with the world", and it really helped me hold on.

We have a notion that you can just 'talk things out', and, in fact, psychiatry/psychology is largely built on that assumption. But, alas, sometimes words just fail. And fail miserably. Music for me was a far better language. And Bach's music helped me remember—or imagine—what it might feel like to be OK again. My musical universe has long since re-expanded to include far more music than just Bach's, but I still remember, and will be eternally grateful for how he reached across the centuries and gave me hope through some truly dark years.

Music can do that. I don't know if music can outright heal, but it can certainly function as an emotional 'cast'—helping to hold our psychic-bones in alignment while the inner healing proceeds. In a fearsome world, it can help us remember what it feels like to be at Peace—and maybe remain a little more peaceful even after the music has fallen silent. In a world with so much that is crass and brutal, music can help us remember what it is to be Noble and Compassionate. In a world with so much grief, music can help us remember Joy.

I share all of this not because I think an experience like this makes me unique. If anything, it has opened my eyes to how many people around me have had their own difficult paths—and so many of them far more difficult than mine. But we're all in this thing called Life together.

I'm really ready for some Peace and Contentment! And I won't take it for granted!

William's "Official" Biography

William Zeitler is a premier composer of today—his music is played on six continents. He has numerous published and commissioned works to his credit, produced seven CDs, performed around the world, and can be heard performing in concert as well as film & TV.

In 1995 William stumbled across a recording by Bruno Hoffmann of the music by Mozart for the glass armonica. "This is really beautiful—I'm going to do this!" Master glassblower Gerhard Finkenbeiner of Waltham, WA (alas, no longer with us) blew a set of glasses for William, and the rest of the instrument was fabricated in Seattle where William lived at the time. Then—unable to find a teacher—William taught himself how to play it.

William is currently collaborating with Cal-Glass for Research to manufacture glass armonicas. William paid his own tuition and living expenses through the California Institute of the Arts (supplemented by a California State Scholarship awarded for academic achievement) building harpsichords and restoring pianos, so he is comfortable in a shop setting. He blew glass for 2 years to understand the medium (as William says: "I don't need to blow the glasses myself, but I must have some idea what I'm talking about when I'm talking to a real glassblower). He also holds a Lifetime Teaching Credential in college-level Mathematics and has taught statistics and calculus, so, as William says, "I can speak 'engineering' and access the scientific literature on the physics of glass bells". Combined with Cal-Glass's decades of precision glass fabrication expertise, they expect to have their first glass armonica 'out the door' in early 2008 (although R&D is difficult to schedule). See the Modern Marvels segment about William making glass armonicas, filmed at Cal-Glass (History Channel Series: Modern Marvels—" Ben Franklin Tech" which premiered May 25, 2006)

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 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

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”.

Live performances by William Zeitler are an experience that will remain with you for a very long time. This virtuoso, composer and scholar of the glass armonica will complement your private event, and bookings are available through bookings or by calling William at 323-791-8112.