William Preucil

Concertmaster of the Mainly Mozart Festival orchestra since its first concerts in 1989, William Preucil has been Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra since 1995.  Prior to that, he was first violinist for the renowned Cleveland Quartet for seven seasons.  During his time with the Quartet, he performed over 100 concerts a year in the major music capitals of the world, in addition to recording the complete cycle of 17 Beethoven quartets, works by Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Brahms for Telarc International.

Previously, Preucil served as Concertmaster for the Atlanta Symphony for seven years, and held similar posts in Utah and Nashville.  During his tenure in Atlanta, he appeared with the orchestra as soloist in 70 performances of 15 different concerti, and Stephen Paulus wrote his “Violin Concerto” for him — a work that Preucil recorded with the Atlanta and Robert Shaw for New World Records.

Other solo appearances have been with the orchestra of Minnesota, Detroit, Rochester, Utah and Hong Kong.

Preucil performs regularly at the most prestigious American chamber music festivals, including Seattle, Sitka, Sarasota and Norfolk, as well as at international festivals in Switzerland, France and Germany.  His chamber music activities include performing as a member of the Lanier Trio, whose recording of the complete Dvorák piano trios was honored as one of Time magazine’s top 10 CDs in 1993.  The Lanier Trio has also recorded the trios of Mendelssohn and Paulus for Gasparo Records.

Actively involved as an educator, Preucil teaches at the Cleveland Institute of Music.  He has previously held positions as Professor of Music at the Eastman School of Music and Distinguished Lecturer in Music at the University of Georgia.  He is also a member of the Artistic Advisory Board for the Interlochen Center for the Arts.

Preucil began violin study at the age of five, taught by his mother, Doris Preucil.  At 16 he graduated with honors from the Interlochen Arts Academy and entered Indiana University to study with Josef Gingold.  He was awarded the prestigious Performer’s Certificate of Indiana University and studied additionally with Zino Francescatti and Gyorgy Sebok.