Faculty:

Bill Purse - Guitar Department Chair

Purse is Chair of the Music Technology and Guitar at Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA), where he was instrumental in the development of three new majors: Music Technology, Sound Recording Technology and a new masters in Music Technology starting Fall 2003. Purse received an EDUCOM (Education Communication) grant to study at Mills College with Dr. Carol Lennox. Additionally, Purse has studied privately with Howard Massey at the Center for Electronic Music in New York. Purse received Duquesne University’s 1996 Presidents award for excellence in scholarship and a 2001 Lifetime Achievement Award for guitar pedagogy and performance. He has chaired the MENC/GAMA/NAMM Guitar Task Force for the past several years and helps provide scholarships for over one thousand teachers who have taught over 370,000 young guitarists internationally. He is also an honored member of the Lexington Who’s Who.

Purse’s highly acclaimed series for Coda Music’s Finale family, The Finale Primer, The PrintMusic Primer, and The NotePad Primer, (Backbeat Books) that are considered standard texts for classroom or individual instruction nationally. He has written several books for the Warner Bros., Ultimate Beginner Tech Start Series: Home Recording Basics, in addition to co-writing the definitive “Classroom Guitar Method” and companion “Teacher Edition” with Aaron Stang for the new Warner Expressions Series (exciting comprehensive methods for all instruments from K-12). Purse has publish several guitar works with Mel Bay Publications and one of his original jazz compositions, “Rainforest,” is featured in Mel Bay’s “World’s Greatest Jazz Solos Volume Two.” Purse has produced and released several albums of original music, including Catch 22’s Reappearance, Sly on Life, and Aergo’s Free. He has toured worldwide with the synthesizer ensemble Aergo and is the producer, arranger, and guitarist/musical director for the Duquesne faculty guitar ensemble Catch 22.