William Buchman

William Buchman joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1992, after two seasons with the Dallas Symphony.  In 1996, he was appointed to the position of assistant principal bassoon and served as acting principal in three seasons since that time. In 2008 he toured with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as guest principal bassoon.

Bill was awarded first prize in the 1990 Gillet Competition of the International Double Reed Society and has performed at several IDRS conferences since then. He has played regularly with Music of the Baroque since 2002, has toured with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Chicago Pro Musica and the Chicago Symphony Winds and has played chamber music with pianists Daniel Barenboim, Emanuel Ax and Christoph Eschenbach. He made his debut as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony in February 2002 and was a soloist at the 1998 Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. Bill has appeared at the Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and the St. Barts Music Festival.  

Bill is from Canton, Ohio, and earned a Bachelor of Science in physics magna cum laude with Honors from Brown University in 1987.  With the support of a DAAD Fellowship, he continued his physics studies the following year at the Universität Fridericiana Karlsruhe in Germany.  Upon returning to the United States, Bill studied bassoon performance at the Yale University School of Music with Arthur Weisberg and at the University of Southern California School of Music with Norman Herzberg before winning a position in Dallas, where he was also on the faculty of the Meadows School at Southern Methodist University.

A member of the DePaul University School of Music faculty since 1997, Bill also coaches the bassoon section of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and has presented master classes throughout the United States and around the world. He lives with his husband Lee Lichamer in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood and is an avid bridge player and bread baker.​