Bill T. Anderson
began studying music at the age of 10, in North Reading, Massachusetts, starting briefly with drums and switching quickly to, of all things, oboe! He was a standout from his earliest years in band and chorus, through high school, when he was selected for the Greater Boston Youth Symphony (at Boston University, where he received his Bachelor's Degree in music), the Massachusetts Youth Wind Ensemble and the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra (at the New England Conservatory, where he received his Masters Degree in music Performance), as well as Massachusetts District Orchestra, Chorus, Band, and his own high school's Concert, Marching and Jazz Bands and Chorus, where he won the Choral Award his senior year. Along the way, he was called on to fill many roles musically,playing baritone horn, trumpet, saxophone, drums, and learning electric bass for the award winning North Reading High School Jazz Band.
A more complete picture emerges of his beginnings through his involvement in sports, as a star pitcher for his baseball team (until the age of 15, when he gave up baseball for music), one varsity track meet (one is enough!), a varsity letter in tennis, and by age 19, competing in both Olympic style lifting (winning the "Salem Y Open") and powerlifting, becoming The New England Champion in Powerlifting (138lb class) in 1981, with a record breaking 485 lb deadlift! All this, prelude (pardon the pun!) to a 30 year career as a professional oboist.
Bill attended Boston University on a small scholarship...small...and worked his way through college, earning a Bachelor in Music Performance in Oboe. Having worked a variety of jobs, he also performed with various orchestras around New England including the New Hampshire Symphony, Nashua, Central Mass, Indian Hill Chamber Orchestra and more, then joined his brother working for a New Hampshire jewelry firm as a production jeweler, for one year between undergraduate and graduate school.
On a much more generous scholarship, won by competitive auditions, he attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, joining 24 other hopefuls that year! In the ensuing two years, he performed frequently as Principal Oboe for the NEC Symphony (the top orchestra in the school), and was even reviewed in The Boston Globe for his solos in a production of Schumann's "Manfred", with local celebrity, classical radio host Robert J Lurtesma and eventual Star Trek Captain "Benjamin Sisko", actor Avery Brooks.
Bill continued performing with such groups as The Portland Symphony in Portland, Me and freelancing, then appeared with The Guadalajara Symphony in Mexico, before a brief membership in The International Chamber Orchestra at, what is now, Alliant International University in San Diego, Ca. From there, he won a position with The New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. This is the premiere training orchestra for up and coming classical musicians in the country.
Five years later, after more freelancing and odd jobs, including a stint as a church organ restorer, building guitars for Parker Guitars in Woburn, Ma, and performing as Principal Oboe with yet more symphonies, including New Haven in Connecticut (and at this point also writing more songs but not being a guitarist, unable to perform them), he won a position in one of only two USAF premier bands, The USAF Academy Band in Colorado Springs, Co..
Writing more songs but still not performing them, Bill finished his 4 year enlistment, and moved back east. It's an active life! He was a finalist for many jobs from auditioning around the country, and eventually won a position with the Sarasota Symphony in Florida. He went on over the next few years, to playing with The Florida Orchestra, The Brevard Symphony, The Orlando Philharmonic, Craig Turley's Orchestra (shows with Patrick Cassidy, Michael W Smith, Bebe Neuwirth and more). While in Sarasota, he was admiring a fellow performers extensive knowledge of music history, when he was given an especially critical thought; this person, who unbeknownst to Bill was dying, heard that he could write songs. He said to Bill, "You can write songs? Why do you play the oboe?" Those words, from someone running out of time, took five more years to sink in and finally pushed Bill to learn guitar in order to perform "..even a little.. even if no one likes my songs..". Thus was born this album, ten years later. There is more to all of this, but he's saving it for the book!