Bill was among the first group of students to ever perform on stage with Mamady Keita in the U.S. and in his home village of Balandougou, in Guinea, West Africa.
Other teachers Bill has learned from include Famoudou Konate, Bolokada Conde, Mahiri Keita, Daouda Kourouma, Sékou Konaté, Mohammed DaCosta, Fode Camara, Kikala Olaré and Joe Galeota. Bill also studied Afro-Cuban percussion with Ricardo Mendoza and Egguie Castrillo, percussionist for Tito Puente.
Bill regularly travels throughout the US leading workshops, clinics and performances. He has received multiple awards from state and local arts councils, and has been an instructor at institutions such as the North Carolina School of the Arts and Wake Forest University. Bill has recorded and performed with a number of groups playing everything from Latin jazz to traditional West African music to rock-and-roll. He has published percussion-related articles in several local publications, and has also completed the HealthRHYTHMS national facilitators training program.
Under Bill’s directorship, TTM Winston-Salem has grown to become a thriving drumming school with classes, performances and events offered almost seven days a week. Each year our organization serves tens of thousands of people with a variety of programs ranging from public school performances and evening classes for adults to corporate drumming programs and drumming instructor training programs. Through his work with the drum, it is Bill’s goal to create an experience of drumming that engenders success within the tradition of the instrument and fosters the use of the drum as an everyday tool for joy, health, and community.