Mike Williams (Artistic Director & Percussion) is a Boston-based performer specializing in contemporary music. He has performed with local ensembles including Sound Icon, Ludovico Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Harvard Group for New Music, and Composers in Red Sneakers among many others. Williams has been involved in numerous recording projects released on the Cantaloupe, BMOP Sound, Albany, and Northwest Classics labels. As an orchestral and chamber musician he has appeared at the Festival de Mexico, Gaudeamus Music Week, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, and the New Hampshire Music Festival. Active in the creation of new works, Williams is the artistic director of Guerilla Opera, an ensemble that exclusively commissions and premieres new chamber operas. Highlights of this season include the world premiere of Rudolf Rojahn’s Deus ex Machina for solo percussion during The Boston Conservatory New Music Festival and the US premiere of Stefano Gervasoni’s concerto for percussion Epicadenza with Sound Icon.

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Williams holds MM and BM degrees from The Boston Conservatory where he won top prizes including the Concerto Competition in 2004. He also completed a year of advanced study at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam during which time he regularly performed with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra under Peter Eötvös and was a guest lecturer and solo recitalist at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold, Germany. Williams was awarded a fellowship from the Tanglewood Music Center and attended The Institute and Festival for Contemporary Performance in New York. His main teachers include Peter Prommel, Pat Hollenbeck, Sal Rabbio, and Nancy Zeltsman.