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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 (five times), Meet the Composer and the Atlanta Chamber Players. Recent commissions have been completed for VMTA (The Memory of Shadows, premiered in November 2007), the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh (Lacrymae, premiered in October 2003), Opus 3 Trio of Washington, DC (Harmonia, premiered in January 2001), organist Dudley Oakes (The Seventh Seal, premiered at the Washington National Cathedral in November 2006) 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 March 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 recent scores include a two-hour St. Matthew Passion for soloists, two choruses and orchestra co-commissioned by eleven southeastern university choral departments and premiered on Good Friday 2000 in Columbia, SC under the direction of Larry Wyatt. At present, he is working on a commission from Seattle Choral Arts entitled The Dream Keeper (Langston Hughes) for chorus and piano four-hands for premiere in May, 2009.
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 Michigan State University Press. 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 February 1996. In recent seasons, Tripartita has received numerous additional performances and has appeared in the active repertoire of the Helios Trio of the Netherlands, among others.
Mr. Averitt’s 1991 score Afro-American Fragments 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 such as those at the University of South Carolina, the Cleveland Institute, the New England Conservatory and California State University at Los Angeles. 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 . . .
William Averitt has been married to the flutist Frances Lapp Averitt since 1971. She has commissioned numerous works in a variety of genres that incorporate the flute including Night Piece (1974), Suite for two flutes (1974), Fantasia I (1977), Four Appalachian Folk Ballads (1990), Sonata (1992), Intonation (1998), Tunebook (2004), Quat’sous (2004) and Transversions (with Ecstasy) (2006). She has played the premieres of many additional scores commissioned by others. She is Professor of Music in Flute at Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University.

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 ASCAPlus Standard Awards since 1991. His works have been published by E.C. Schirmer, Treble Clef Press, Little Piper, ALRY Publications, Fred Bock Music, Michigan State University Press, Concordia, MMB Publications, Thomas House, Hinshaw Music and Dorn 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.
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. 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 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.
Dr. Averitt is Professor of Music and Coordinator of Composition at Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia where he has been on the faculty since 1973. In the Spring 2000, he was presented with the Wilkins Appreciation Award for Faculty Excellence by the University.
