Milton Williams
Milton Williams is the Producing Artistic Director for Innovative Theater Arts. His current composition project is A Bridge To The Promised Land: https://www.bridgetothepromisedland.com. Other compositions include "Hitchhiker" (a film score, distributed by Time-Life Films), "Espying" (a theater oratorio premiered at the Banff Festival of the Arts in Canada), Fanfare for a New Century for Brass Septet (premiered by the Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music), "I Hear an Army" for Chorus - SSAATTBB, 2 pianos, cello, bass, & tuba (premiered at the University of California, Berkeley), and much more.
He conducted the fully staged premiere of "Espying" for the Banff Festival of the Arts in Canada. For the University of California, Berkeley, Williams directed and was the principal conductor for the Student Division of Vocal Music’s seven ensemble organization. In addition to their normal concert programming, they also produced fully staged music drama productions. Notable among these were the following: the California Premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s “MASS” with the Oakland Symphony (Williams Produced and Conducted his students, along with professional singers and dancers, with Norbert Vesak of the Metropolitan Opera and Stuttgart Ballet as Stage Director-choreographer), “Carmina Burana,” with the Oakland Ballet and Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra, (Ron Guidi, Stage Director-Choreographer), and Ralph Vaughn Williams’ masterful cantata “Hodie.”
Williams also conducted the Solisti Theater Arts Orchestra. His professional vocal ensemble was the Solisti Singers. In addition to their normal presentations, this ensemble performed with such diverse companies and entertainers as the American Ballet Theater (at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House, performing Igor Stravinsky’s “Les Noces”), George Duke, and Barry Manilow. He was the choral and opera rehearsal conductor for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music’s staged drama productions for nine seasons.
As a Guest Conductor, he has led the San Francisco Symphony Pops Orchestra with the San Francisco Civic Chorale. During the summer of 2000, He was the Associate Conductor for Pope John Paul II’s production of Leonard Bernstein’s theater piece "MASS," at the Vatican, Rome, Italy, for the Jubilee 2000 celebrations. His initial "MASS" duties involved coaching the ensemble of professional soloists at The Juilliard School in New York City (who were at that time performing on Broadway, with the Metropolitan Opera, and with the La Scala Opera). His later duties included preparing, from scratch, a new professional orchestra associated with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, for the Dress Rehearsal and performance.
Milton Williams received a Master of Music Degree in Composition and Orchestral Conducting from Notre Dame de Namur University in California and a Bachelor of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He also attended Eastman School of Music.