William “Bill” Bares is a musician, scholar, educator and music promoter from Omaha, Nebraska. A trumpeter since age 10, he earned a spot in the McDonald’s All American High School Band and played professionally, switching to piano in his early twenties. He received a BA in political science from Amherst College and worked in the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. before turning to a full-time career in music—which has included residencies in New York, Boston, Miami, D.C., Berlin, and most recently, Asheville, NC. He holds a MM in jazz piano performance from the University of Miami and a PhD in ethnomusicology from Harvard University under the supervision of the Quincy Jones Professor of African American Music. He taught at Harvard, Brown, NEC, Suffolk University and Berklee College of Music before becoming co-director of Jazz Studies at UNC Asheville, where he conducts research, directs several ensembles and teaches courses on jazz history, harmony and improvisation, and African American music, as well as in the humanities. His book, Jazz and the European Dream: