Hailing from his birthplace of Shreveport, Louisiana and longtime hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, William Russell is the tuba player of the world-renowned, internationally-touring ensemble Boston Brass. Prior to his appointment to Boston Brass, he was a co-founder of the Chicago-based quintet Alliance Brass. His principal teachers have included Steve Layman, Kevin Stees, Sam Pilafian, Mike Roylance, Floyd Cooley, jazz trumpeter John D’earth and bassist Peter Spaar. William is an alumnus of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.
As a classical, jazz and pop instrumentalist, William has performed across the United States in venues from the Corn Palace to Carnegie Hall, and he has toured in Europe with both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. William can be heard on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Grammy-winning 2008 recording of Shostakovich's 4th Symphony, and if you look hard enough, you might spot him acting as a background musician in the episode "Slave to Memory" from 20th Century Fox's Empire.
When not on the road with Boston Brass, William is based in Chicago, where he teaches tuba and euphonium at Northeastern Illinois University. He can also be heard performing with a number of jazz and pop groups, including the New Orleans-inspired High-Hat Second Line, funk/hip-hop brass band J-Livi & The Party and the quartet Arcana, a group that has been described as "third stream meets second line."
