William Short

William Short was appointed Principal Bassoon of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 2012. He previously served in the same capacity with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and has also performed with the Houston and Detroit Symphonies and the Philadelphia Orchestra. William has performed as soloist with the Vermont and Delaware Symphonies, the New York Classical Players, and the Strings Festival Orchestra. He is a founding member of the Gotham Wind Quintet and is a regular performer with Camerata Pacifica and Dolce Suono chamber music series.

A dedicated teacher, William serves on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, and Temple University, and is a Valade Fellow at Interlochen Arts Camp. In addition, he is a Visiting Faculty member at The Tianjin Juilliard School and has held visiting guest positions at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has presented classes at colleges and conservatories around the world and at conferences of the International Double Reed Society, for which he served as a board member from 2017-2021.

William has performed and taught at the Lake Champlain, Lake Tahoe, Mostly Mozart, Stellenbosch (South Africa), Strings, and Twickenham Festivals. An occasional arranger, editor, and composer, his works have been published by the Theodore Presser Company and TrevCo-Varner Music.

Committed to forging connections between audiences and performers, William's articles on the subject have been lauded not only by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, but also by noted arts consultant Drew McManus and prolific cultural commentator Norman Lebrecht.

William received his Bachelor of Music from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Daniel Matsukawa and Bernard Garfield, and his Master of Music at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he studied with Benjamin Kamins. He attended festivals including the Music Academy of the West, Pacific Music Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, and the Verbier Festival. Additional major teachers have included Jeanine Attaway, Kristin Wolfe Jensen, and William Lewis.

In Defense of Insecurity

December 10, 2015  /  William Short

I’ve written previously about having taken slow, methodical practice too far—about having placed so little confidence in my own abilities that I refused to believe that I could play anything without exhaustive (and exhausting) preparation. At the time, I didn’t acknowledge how the underlying cause of that can actually be useful. Yes, that gnawing insecurity, that feeling that we’re not talented enough, not dedicated enough, not good enough, can actually lead somewhere positive. The fact is, we’re all insecure. It’s just the nature of being a musician—we’ve all failed so many times, whether to live up to our own expectations or to others’, that it’s only natural. But there is one essential way in which that can actually be helpful.

I think I’m lazy. Intellectually, I know I’m not, but that creeping doubt in my own work ethic is an element of what drives me to work harder. It all boils back to a productive use of insecurity. Of course, the first and most important reason to continue working is love of the art form. Following that to its next logical step, when we love something deeply, we want to do it well—especially when it happens to involve performing in front of thousands of people. Let’s be frank: The fear of public humiliation, ever-present in the performing arts, is a terrific motivating factor. In its best iteration, it drives us to prepare more than necessary, to be better than the demands placed before us. And that’s a very, very useful thing in our line of work—provided that we don’t become so overwhelmed that we freeze or lose all confidence in our own abilities. It’s a subtle balancing act, requiring that we carefully monitor our mental state and only allow ourselves to give credence to those fears that can be funneled into a productive mindset.

It’s worth noting that this applies differently at different stages of one’s musical development. At a certain, quite advanced point, you’re not going to get a whole lot further through brute force. At that point, the way to continue improving becomes less about the number of hours spent in the practice room, and more about how thoughtfully those hours are applied and how you seek to expand your musical horizons. At this latter stage, insecurity becomes more and more of a crutch—although it’s never entirely gone, and I think that’s ultimately a good thing. But particularly in the early stages of one’s musical life, especially as a student, insecurity that drives us to work harder (albeit still in a thoughtful way) is indispensable.

There are a great many ways in which insecurity can be destructive: if it makes us treat others poorly, if it becomes so overwhelming that we can’t get productive work done, or if it manifests in excessive mental or physical tension. But if you use it to ensure that you continue working, with the feeling that it’s never enough? I know how unpleasant that feeling is—believe me. But you’re probably on the right path.

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