The American violinist William Harvey made his Carnegie hall debut with the New York Youth Symphony, playing with “fire and assurance,” as noted by The New York Times.

William Harvey has established an eclectic career, built on and embracing a wide variety of repertoire and artistic experiences. He has been guest soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra, and played Milton Babbitt’s Melismata in The Juilliard School’s official concert honoring the composer’s 90th birthday. In 2002, he gave the first performance west of New York City of the Sonata for Solo Violin (1919) by Artur Schnabel. He taught at the Las Vegas Music Festival and has conducted master classes at the Escuela Superior de Musica (México City), St. Scholastica’s College (Manila) and Whitworth College (Spokane). In 2009, Mr. Harvey was named Violin & Viola Teacher by the Ministry of Education of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan; he moved to Kabul late in 2009, where he will teach and perform.

A profound believer in outreach concerts and the power of music to heal, William Harvey famously performed for members of the Fighting Sixty-Ninth regiment on September 16, 2001, as they recuperated from the rigors of a long day of rescue and reclamation work at New York City’s Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center catastrophe. William Harvey founded and directs Cultures in Harmony, an organization that forges connections across cultural and national barriers through the medium if music. In Konya, Turkey, the birthplace of the whirling dervish rite, he successfully negotiated the first inclusion of women in the ensemble of accompanying musicians in the 700-year history of the ceremony. Cultures in Harmony has also assisted AIDS orphans in Zimbabwe to write music about water to call attention to water-access issues at their school, and helped The Philippines’ Tala-Andig tribe create compositions in celebration of its indigenous heritage. Workshops for young classical musicians in the Philippines, Tunisia, Zimbabwe and México have benefitted hundreds of students.

In 2004, William Harvey became one of two students to earn the Bachelor’s of Music With Highest Distinction from Indiana University, where he studied with Ilya Kaler and Mimi Zweig. He received his master’s degree from The Juilliard School, having studied with Ronald Copes.