Bridge Records Management: William Purvis

William Purvis, pursues a multifaceted career both in the U.S. and abroad as French horn soloist, chamber musician, conductor and educator. A passionate advocate of new music, Mr. Purvis has recently given premieres of horn concerti by Peter Lieberson and Bayan Northcott, the Horn Trio by Poul Ruders, the U.S. premiere of the revised version of the Ligeti Horn Concerto, the world premiere of Richard Wernick’s Quintet for Horn and String Quartet, and the world premiere of Steven Stucky’s Trio for Oboe, Horn, and Harpsichord. Other recent premieres include Etudes and Parodies for horn trio by Paul Lansky and Consider… for baritone and horn by Roger Reynolds.

A dedicated chamber musician, Mr. Purvis is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, Orpheus, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, The Yale Brass Trio, The Triton Horn Trio and Mozzafiato, an original instrument wind sextet. He is a frequent guest with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has collaborated with the Juilliard, Tokyo, Orion, Brentano, Mendelssohn, Sibelius and Fine Arts String Quartets, and has appeared as solo horn of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe with Nicholas Harnoncourt. His large discography spans an unusually broad range from original instrument performance to standard solo and chamber music repertoire to contemporary solo and chamber music works. Included in this list are Mozart Concerti and the Sinfonia Concertante KV 297b with Orpheus for Deutsche Grammophon and the Horn Trios of Brahms and Ligeti for Bridge, a recording of music by Schumann with Mihae Lee (Bridge), and Peter Lieberson's Horn Concerto (Bridge), which was honored with a 2006 Gramophone Award. Formerly Professor at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe, he is currently a member of the horn faculties of the Yale School of Music where he is also Coordinator of Winds and Brass, The Juilliard School where he is also Coordinator for the New York Woodwind Quintet Wind Chamber Music Seminar and SUNY Stony Brook. Mr. Purvis graduated from Haverford College with a BA in Philosophy.