Violinist William van der Sloot Joins Oberlin Conservatory String Faculty

William van der Sloot, a heralded violinist and teacher whose students have earned acclaim throughout the world, has been named Associate Professor of Violin at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

He will begin teaching in the fall 2018 semester.

“Bill van der Sloot is a marvelous teacher and mentor, and he has guided many students to remarkable professional success,” says David Bowlin, an associate professor of violin and chair of the strings division at Oberlin. “We are thrilled to have him join our faculty.”

A native of Alberta, Canada, van der Sloot is a graduate of the University of Calgary who also studied at the Eastman School of Music. A onetime member of the Villa Marteau Quintet, he has toured extensively across Europe and North America. 

Van der Sloot is a frequent judge of international competitions including the Wieniawski International Violin Competition, the Brahms International Chamber Music Competition, the Stradivarius International Violin Competition, and the Chengdu International Violin Competition. His students have earned top prizes in the National Music Festival, the Canadian Music Competition, the Menuhin International Violin Competition, the Stradivarius International Violin Competition, the Queen Elisabeth Competition, and the Tchaikovsky Competition, among numerous others. Many of his former students hold positions in major orchestras around the world.

In the summer of 2018, van der Sloot served on the faculty of the Morningside Music Bridge program at the Chopin University in Warsaw, at Orford Music at Mont Orford in Quebec, and at the Meadowmount School of Music in New York. He also taught classes at the Violin Institute in Chicago and served as co-artistic director of the Valhalla Summer School of Music in British Columbia.

“I am excited to be a part of the outstanding musical offerings for which Oberlin has gained such a wonderful reputation,” says van der Sloot, who worked with Oberlin students as a guest artist in spring 2018. “I was overwhelmed by the warmth and collegiality of the string faculty and by the responsiveness of the students in the master class,” he says.

In 2015, van der Sloot was named an honorary fellow of the Royal Conservatory of Music for his contributions to music education in Canada and abroad. He also holds teaching appointments at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and Mount Royal University in Calgary.