Biography
Bill Sallak’s work exists at a crossroads where the primal nature of percussion instruments collides with cutting-edge technology, where the solitary work of the creative artist brushes up alongside cross-disciplinary collaboration. While Bill’s focus is largely local — he is Assistant Professor/Dance Music Director at Kent State University and works throughout northeastern Ohio with the Akros Percussion Collective, the Kent Dance Ensemble, Antaeus Dance, and others — his music has reached audiences as far away as Detroit, New York City, Phoenix, Mexico, Greece, South Korea, and Bangladesh, where he received a commission from the Grameen Bank, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
Bill is currently principal percussionist with the Music On The Edge Chamber Orchestra (Pittsburgh, PA) as well as a founding member of the no-holds-barred electroacoustic improvisation group Easy Worship Operator (along with percussionist Joshua Michael Carro and clarinetist Josh Bennett). Bill has also performed with the Phoenix Symphony, the Akron Symphony, Crossing 32nd Street (voted Best New Classical Music Ensemble in Phoenix), Arizona Contemporary Music Ensemble, New Music Group/Daedalus, Ohio Ballet, and dance departments at The University of Akron, Ohio University, Slippery Rock University, Cleveland State University, SUNY-Fredonia, and Arizona State University. Conference and festival appearances include the 2010 InterMedia Festival of Telematic Arts (Indianapolis, IN), the 2006 John Donald Robb Composers’ Symposium at the University of New Mexico, five Percussive Arts Society International Conferences, three SCI conferences, two American College Dance Fesitval regional conferences, three Phoenix Experimental Arts Festivals, Aspen Dance Connection (Aspen, CO), the 2006 World Congress on Dance Research (Athens, Greece), and the 2008 Cultura UNAM festival (Mexico City, Mexico). His audio restoration of composer Ray Green’s score for May O’Donnell’s Dance Energies was presented as part of Ms. O’Donnell’s memorial concert at the Joyce Theatre in Manhattan, and he was selected as a fellow for the 2007 Bang on a Can Summer Festival in North Adams, MA. As a performer, conductor, composer, and coach, he has given world and regional premiere performances of over thirty works.
Bill is currently a member of the Percussive Arts Society New Music/Research Committee as well as the International Guild of Musicians in Dance. A committed educator, Bill has taught college courses in percussion, contemporary music, musicology, rock history, jazz history, world music, electronic music, audio engineering, and physics. Bill can be heard on releases from New World Records, 11 West Records, and Experimedia.
Bill holds undergraduate degrees in percussion performance and audio engineering from SUNY-Fredonia and a master’s degree in percussion performance from The University of Akron. He is currently completing his doctorate at Arizona State University.
Click here to download Bill's CV.