Bill Horvitz - Guitarist / Composer

Bill Horvitz stretches the boundaries of guitar music and points it in new and exciting directions. Horvitz fuses traditional and extended techniques in a most inventive way; his strikingly personal instrumental vision endows the music with an infinite array of tonal color. His long and varied experience in the realms of jazz, rock, classical, folk, and new music have resulted in an entirely original compositional voice--a voice that is forceful and innovative, yet always intelligently accessible.

Since 1974, Horvitz has led both large and small ensembles. Between 1978 and 1988, he lived and worked in New York City, where he explored and extended the sonic range of the guitar in a wide variety of settings. While in NYC, he led the quartet Living With Apparitions and was a member of the band The Public Servants. He has collaborated with many composers and improvisers, notably J.A. Deane, Joseph Sabella, Butch Morris, Elliott Sharp, John Zorn, Bobby Previte, Shelley Hirsch, Denman Maroney, Herb Robertson, Roy Campbell, Richard Dworkin, David Hofstra, George Cartwright, Phillip Johnston, Myra Melford, George Lewis, Bill Laswell, Dave Sewelson, Eugene Chadbourne, Frank London, and Walter Thompson.

He currently leads the Bill Horvitz Band featuring Steve Adams on woodwinds and Harris Eisenstadt on drums. The band recorded its third CD in November 2007, which should be out in early 2008. He also works with the improvising quartet Out by Five with Jon Raskin, George Cremaschi, and Garth Powell , the Harris Eisenstadt Ahimsa Orchestra, and Moe Staino's Moekestra! He has recently recorded the CD Tuolumne Songs, compositions for solo acoustic guitar. His latest project is TONE BENT, a vocal and guitar collaboration with composer and singer Robin Eschner, features original songs as well as covers, often twisting old favorites in new ways.

Horvitz collaborates frequently with poets and other writers, combining electric and acoustic music with spoken word. He composed the music for the theater piece Circus Proboscis: A Sneeze of Freaks and the films DamNaged and Gravity Hill and has created music for dance and art installation .