William Knuth, a violinist and Fulbright Scholar who has earned recognition for his artistry as a solo and chamber musician, will join the string performance faculty of the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ Rose, Jules R. and Stanford S. Setnor School of Music as an assistant teaching professor in the Fall 2019 semester.
Knuth has been praised for his “perfect intonation, wide range of timbre…expressive phrasing and great sensitivity” by American Record Guide. He spent two years as a Fulbright Scholar in Vienna, Austria, studying at the Vienna Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst. He was a featured performer multiple times for members of the United Nations Council as well as foreign ambassadors from Russia, Spain, Germany, France and Austria. 
“We’re excited to have Will join the faculty at Setnor,” says Martha Sutter, professor of practice and director of the Setnor School. “Along with his impressive performance credentials, he has distinguished himself as an excellent teacher and pedagogue, skills which will support our string program now and into the future.”
“I am honored to join the wonderful faculty and students at Setnor this fall,” says Knuth. “I am sincerely looking forward to collaborating with this impressive artistic community.”
Knuth holds an M.M. degree from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied violin with Nicholas Kitchen of the Borromeo Quartet and chamber music with Eliot Fisk and Paul Biss; a Fulbright certificate for work with Ernst Kovacic at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts; and a B.M. from the Eastman School of Music, where he was a student of Lynn Blakeslee. He began his violin studies in Utica, New York, at the Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute with Mildred Carney and continued his preparatory studies in the area with Michael Cleveland, Jennifer Reuning-Myers and James Krehbiel.
As a member of Duo Sonidos with guitarist Adam Levin, Knuth has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Africa and South America. He and Levin released their most recent album, “Duo Sonidos: WILD DANCE,” on the NAXOS label, and it immediately rose to no. 3 on the Billboard classical music charts. The duo was awarded First Prize at the 2010 Luys Milan International Chamber Music Competition in Valencia, Spain. Julian Haylock of BBC Music Magazine chose the debut album “Duo Sonidos” as the “BBC Top Choice U.S. Release Album.”
As a regular member of the esteemed New York City-based new music group Ensemble Signal, Knuth actively works with some of the leading contemporary composers of our time under the direction of conductor Brad Lubman. In 2017 the ensemble gave the U.S. premiere of Steve Reich’s new work “Runner” in a collaboration with CalArts at University of California Berkeley and is considered “one of the most vital groups of its kind” by The New York Times. Knuth served as associate concertmaster of the vibrant Boston-based chamber orchestra Discovery Ensemble led by Courtney Lewis, which quickly gained a reputation as one of the finest ensembles in New England and held an ongoing residency with WGBH Boston Radio’s Fraser Performing Arts Studio. While in Boston, Knuth was also a member of the Boston Philharmonic under the leadership of Benjamin Zander.
Knuth’s recent concerts in the U.S. have included a debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall; performances in New York’s Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Fundacao Oscar Americano Sao Paulo, Columbia University’s Miller Theater, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, Harvard Sanders Theater, Boston WGBH radio, Chicago WFMT radio, WCNY radio, NPR radio and Mayne Stage Chicago; guest solo appearances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and the Boston International Guitarfest; and ensemble work with Discovery Ensemble, Signal Ensemble, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Harvard Group for New Music, IMPULS Festival Austria, June in Buffalo Festival, Big Ears Festival and the Ojai Festival. Special projects have included collaborations with Steve Reich, Kaija Saariaho, Salvador Brotons, Eduardo Morales-Caso, Jorge Muniz, Phillip Glass, Julia Wolfe, David Lang, Lukas Foss, Norah Jones, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, Goldfrapp, David Byrne, Jon Brion and the Goo Goo Dolls.