Guitarist/composer William Kentner Anderson, "the alert guitarist" (Paul Griffiths, NY Times), has been a champion of new American music for 35 years. He founded the Cygnus Ensemble, and is Artistic Director of Marsyas Productions and the Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music. Anderson's music is not like anything else, often engaging with simple musical materials-pop songs, folksongs and folk lyrics. He breaks barriers-asking his guitarists to sing backup vocals, incorporating Tibetan overtone singing in his setting of Djuna Barnes' "Paradise", integrating an uillean piper into the Cygnus Ensemble. Anderson began performing chamber music at Tanglewood at age 19, gigged with the NY Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Chamber Players, under James Levine, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Theater Chamber Players in Washington, DC.
