William Moersch is a marimbist, orchestral percussionist, recording artist, and educator. He has performed as a soloist and recitalist across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia and appears on more than 75 recordings. He has commissioned 121 works, mainly for marimba in solo, chamber, and concerto settings, from composers including Martin Bresnick, Jacob Druckman, David Lang, Paul Lansky, Libby Larsen, Joseph Schwantner, and Charles Wuorinen. He was the first marimbist to receive a National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Fellowship and has also received NEA recording and consortium commissioning grants.
Before joining the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Moersch worked as a freelance musician in New York City for more than two decades, performing with ensembles including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, American Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. He created graduate programs in marimba performance at Rutgers University and the Peabody Conservatory, then taught at Illinois from 1998 to 2024. He is now Professor Emeritus of Percussion.
Moersch holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in percussion performance from the University of Michigan. He is principal timpanist of Sinfonia da Camera and the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of New Music Marimba. The Percussive Arts Society presented him with its Lifetime Achievement in Education Award in 2020 and inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2025.