The Kotas Project

Gail Williams

Gail Williams is currently a professor of horn at Northwestern University. Williams earned her Bachelor’s at Ithaca College under the tutelage of Jack Covert. She then earned a Master’s degree at Northwestern and performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago for four years. In 1978 Williams won an audition for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and became their assistant principal. In 1984 she won the associate principal position which she held until her retirement in 1998.

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Williams is an important figure in the world of horn pedagogy. She frequently gives master classes at conservatories such as Juilliard School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, San Francisco Conservatory, the New World Symphony, Eastman School of Music, Boston Conservatory, Rice University, University of Houston, University of Illinois, Sam Houston University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, the NAC Orchestra (Ottawa), and Music Hochschule (Frankfurt, Germany). Williams has also been a featured lecturer at several International Horn Society Conventions. In May 2005, Williams was awarded the Charles Deering McCormick Teaching Professorship from North Western. Williams is also devoted to the promotion of chamber music and is a founding member of the Chicago Chamber Musicians.