About Bill Doerrfeld
The music of composer and pianist Bill Doerrfeld ranges from classical orchestral, chamber and solo piano to jazz to hybrid genres. His passion is to create and present unique, accessible and meaningful concert music.
Born April 3, 1964 into a musical family from Chicago, Illinois Bill Doerrfeld began playing piano at age 4. During his youth Bill earned numerous awards for his music including winning a Downbeat Magazine DB award at age 16 (the youngest person at the time to earn said award), the Jacksonville And All That Jazz Great American Jazz Piano Competition, the Yamaha National Electone Festival, a New York Youth Symphony Commission and Carnegie Hall orchestral premiere performance along with awards, honors and fellowships from BMI, ASCAP, Tanglewood, Yaddo, Banff, MacDowell Artist Colony. Delius Foundation, Fontana Arts Society and others. At age 13 he was invited by Yamaha to perform his original solo jazz piano work in Japan and across the United States as part of the Junior Original Concert.
After a nearly 17 break from music due to life altering events Bill returned in 2007 and quickly began making up for lost time composing a large number of piano works. In 2012 he expanded his compositional output to include orchestral, concert band, chamber ensemble and choral works.
Bill’s works have been performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Northwest Sinfonietta and Youngstown Symphony among others. Doerrfeld’s piano works have been performed on international tours by renowned pianists such as Van Cliburn International Piano Competition gold medalist Ralph Votapek. As a classical pianist Bill has been featured guest of the Northwest Sinfonietta and Methow Music Festival among others. Bill has also performed and recorded for CD release his original alternative work at the Bang On A Can festival in New York. Bill has released three albums on the Jassical label featuring his original solo piano compositions.
Conductors who have presented Doerrfeld’s work include David Zinman, David Alan Miller, David Effron, Christophe Chagnard and George Tsontakis among others.
Bill studied classical composition and piano earning degrees from Interlochen Arts Academy, Eastman School of Music and Yale School of Music. His composition teachers include Joseph Schwanter, Samuel Adler, Louis Andriessen, Jacob Druckman and Martin Bresnick. Bill currently resides in a small town near the mountains 1.5 hours East of Seattle where he composes and records his music full-time.