RECENT NEWS
2023: August 1 (anticipated) publication by Rowman & Littlefield of new book: Eros at the Piano: The Life-Energy of Classical Music. Info here: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538167502/Eros-at-the-Piano-The-Life-Energy-of-Classical-Music . . . The REVIEWS tab lists pre-publication endorsements, which describe the book as “original, bold, captivating, compelling, revelatory, enlightening, luminous, inspirational, brilliantly researched, astonishingly readable.”
2022: Performance with Jackson (MI) Symphony Orchestra of “Warsaw Concerto” by Richard Addinsell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-V4zb_QLyE
2021: Named Distinguished Professor Emeritus by the Board of Regents of Texas Tech University
2020: Joined the presenter faculty on the UK-based instructional site “Practising the Piano” (Online Academy). Looking forward to releasing many videos there on various topics. Here is a link to the first release:
Performed as concerto soloist on subscription concerts in the 2019-2020 season: Grieg Concerto (Lubbock Symphony Orchestra (TX), Jan. 17-18. My “Farewell” solo recital at Texas Tech University – I retired in May 2020 after 41 years – was November 17, 2019.
Summer 2020: Rejoined the faculty at Chetham’s International Summer School and Festival for Pianists (Manchester, UK), and the InterHarmony Music Festival (Germany).
July 2017: Article published in Brain and Cognition 115:47-55: “Mirror neuron activation of musicians and non-musicians in response to motion captured piano performances”
The article “The Pedagogical Value of ‘Enjoyment’ in the Classical Piano Studio – A Research Report on a Transdisciplinary Study” (Grund, O’Boyle, Westney, Yang) was named “Article of the Year 2016” by MTNA E-Journal, and a cash award was presented at the Music Teachers National Association conference in March 2017.
Summer 2017: I returned as teacher and performer to the InterHarmony Music Festival in the picturesque town of Acqui Terme, Italy. I was the keynote speaker at the European Piano Teachers Association (UK) conference in Nottingham.
July 2016: workshops, public lectures, and coached solo and chamber performances at the Festival Filarmonico Juvenil in Chaco, Argentina, sponsored by Youth Orchestra of the Americas and by Fundación Pradier – Redes Culturales.
In 2015-16 I delivered online Webinars to young professional orchestral musicians in 15 countries in North and South America. Participants, all members of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, were enrolled in that organization’s elite Global Leaders program, focusing on musical outreach to all segments of society.
My book The Perfect Wrong Note was published in Japanese by Yamaha Music Media Corporation (2015).
A website from the United Kingdom, leanmusician.com, offers insightful articles designed to help musicians of all kinds meet with success and fulfillment. I was asked to deliver its first podcast, “Performance, Practice, and Redefining Mistakes,” which can be heard here: http://www.leanmusician.com/william-westney-interview/
Two articles on the transdisciplinary research project carried out by Westney, Grund, O’Boyle and Yang (see Research tab) have been published in recent months. (1) “Musical Embodiment and Perception: Performances, Avatars and Audiences”: SIGNATA. Annales des Sémiotique / Annals of Semiotics, # 6, 2015. Music and Meaning / Sémiotiques de la musique, Presses Universitaires de Liège (Belgium). (2) “The Pedagogical Value of ‘Enjoyment’ in the Classical Piano Studio – A Research Report on a Transdisciplinary Study”: MTNA E-Journal April 16, 2016 (Music Teachers National Association)
Texas Tech University named William Westney to its “Integrated Scholars” roster in 2014. A profile and 2-minute video can be seen HERE.
Music Teachers National Association designated William Westney the 2012 recipient of the “Frances Clark Keyboard Pedagogy Award” in recognition of the ongoing contribution made to the field of pedagogy by his book The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self (2003).