Faculty

An award-winning producer, director, teacher, and administrator, William Gustafson began his tenure as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the Mannes School of Music in 2014. Upon his appointment, he played an immediate and vital role in the implementation of Mannes in a New Key, the strategic plan for Mannes authored in 2013, and in the eventual integration of Mannes into the College of Performing Arts, formed in 2015. Over the course of his nearly 12-year tenure at Mannes, Bill has led successful efforts related to curricular development and assessment, enrollment management and student retention, new faculty appointments, and the expansion of curricular offerings and performance opportunities for students at both the undergraduate and graduate degree levels. Prior to his appointment at Mannes, Bill served as an Associate Provost at Long Island University, an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Colorado at Boulder College of Music, and as the Director of Opera Studies at the New England Conservatory.    An accomplished producer and stage director, Bill has been praised by the Denver Post for staging that was “a success in every way,” by The Boston Globe for productions that were “lively, amusing, and well worked out,” and as having shown “a well–judged sense of theater” by Opera News. Professional directing credits include Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Hansel und Gretel, and Die Zauberflöte with the Sarasota Opera Company; L’Elisir d’Amore, La Cenerentola, and Turandot with Opera Birmingham; L’Orfeo favola in musica with Boston Baroque; Ariodante with the Handel and Haydn Society; H.M.S Pinafore and Yeoman of the Guard with Central City Opera; Don Pasquale at the Pine Mountain Music Festival; and Treemonisha at San Francisco's Stern Grove Festival.    Innovation in opera training at the conservatory level has been a hallmark of Bill’s teaching and directing career. In 2017, he served as the producer and director for the academic premiere of Dust by Robert Ashley at Mannes. Zachary Woolfe of The New York Times hailed this production of Dust as “the most tantalizing operatic offering by a New York conservatory this season” and one of “The Best Opera and Vocal Performances of 2017.” Prior to his appointment at Mannes, Bill was entrusted by the American composer Jack Heggie with the academic premier of Dead Man Walking produced at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The production was named one of the best performances of 2007 by the Denver Post and earned him the Eaton Faculty Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Humanities, Arts and Music. In 2000, he was tapped by his mentor John Moriarty after his retirement to lead the opera training program at The New England Conservatory of Music. Productions at NEC included Britten’s Albert Herring, staged in Jordan Hall. Recent productions include the Philip Glass opera The Fall of the House of Usher, Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, and Purcell’s The Fairy Queen.     Bill holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts and a Master of Music Degree from the University of Michigan, a Master of Business Administration from Long Island University, and a Bachelor of Music in Performance from the University of Connecticut.