Biography
Coodinator of Guitar Studies
Bill Boris is the associate chair of the Music department, the coordinator of Guitar Studies and the director of the Fusion Ensemble at Columbia College Chicago. Bill is a prolific jazz guitarist who performs throughout the Chicago area. He has performed or recorded with David “Fat Head” Newman, Fred Wesley, Tony Monaco, Marco Pignataro, Geof Bradfield, Arthur Prysock, Eric Alexander, Charles Earland, Irene Reid, Manfredo Fest, and Robert Irving III. He played on the Mike Frost Project C.D., “Comin’ Straight at You”, which was nominated for a Grammy in 2007. Bill released his debut C.D. “Hold Back” in 1999, featuring original compositions. He has performed at the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Barbados Jazz Festival, the Kaunas Jazz Festival in Lithuania, the Szczecin Jazz Festival in Poland, the Pescara Jazz Festival in Italy and the South Shore Jazz Festival in Chicago. He has also appeared at the Jazz Showcase, the Green Mill in Chicago and Catalina’s in Los Angeles. Bill released his second cd, "Bright Moments" in 2018.
Bill has performed in Pescara, Italy and led workshops at the Pescara Conservatory and at Popakademie’s International music camp in Mannheim Germany . The Fusion Ensemble which has received numerous awards from the DownBeat Student Music Awards including "Best Small Combo" in 2019. In the past 10 years the Fusion Ensemble has performed at the Notre Dame and Elhurst Jazz Festivals where the students received the highest rating from adjudicators and many Outstanding Soloist Awards.The Fusion Ensemble has performed with internationally recognized artist like Stephon Harris,Cory Henry, Donny McCaslin,Christian McBride,Bob Mintzer,Mike Stern and Bernard Perdie. The ensemble performed with Wycliffe Gordon at the 2017 Jazz Education Network convention in New Orleans. Bill wrote a chapter focusing on big band guitar for "Jazz Zone" by Dick Dunscomb which was published in 2020. Bill attended Berklee College of Music and received his B.A. from Notre Dame University.
Website:https://www.billboris.com/
Instructional Areas
Jazz Guitar Instruction, Guitar Tech, Fusion Ensemble
Creative Practice and Research Interests
Improvisation, History of Jazz and Popular Music, Recording
Degrees
B.A., Modern Languages University of Notre Dame 1977