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Bill Richards

William Richards is a graduate of Temple University and holds a Master of Music degree from the Catholic University of America. He performed as principal percussion and featured soloist for The United States Army Band (Pershing's Own) in Washington, DC for 20 years. After leaving the band, Mr. Richards has been very active in the Washington, DC/Baltimore area. He has performed with the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra since 1984. During that time he has performed with Placido Domingo, Kiri te Kanawa, Jose Carreras and Renee Fleming. In 1999 he performed at the Verizon Center for the popular Three Tenors Concert. Also in 1999 Mr. Richards performed at the White House with the Opera Orchestra for the 50th anniversary of NATO. IN 2000 he toured Germany as timpanist with the Washington Bach Consort for the 250th anniversary of J. S. Bach's death. As timpanist with the Washington Symphonic Brass, he performed for Pope Benedict's Mass at National's Park in April of 2008. He has also performed with the National and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras. Mr. Richards has performed for the world's greatest ballet companies, including the Bolshoi, Mariinsdy (Kirov), American Ballet Theatre and the Royal Ballet. He also enjoys musical theatre and has played Annie Get Your Gun with Bernadette Peters, the American premiere of Andrew LLoyd Webber's Whistle Down the Wind and the pre-Broadway 50th anniversary run of the Tony award winning West Side Story. As a member of the Verge Ensemble of the Contemporary Music Forum, Mr. Richards traveled to Paris in 2007 to perform jointly with the Aleph Ensemble of Paris. Mr. Richards has been the head of the Percussion Department at Howard University in Washington, DC since 2000.