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 William in the early 80s working on Arlo Guthrie's Martin
D-42
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Side bending on a hot pipe--photo from
William's guitarmaking textbook
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Cover of Chronicle Press edition of
guitarmaking textbook William wrote with Jon Natelson
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After
graduating in the late 60's from Pratt Institute with a Bachelor of Industrial Design,
William apprenticed in New York City and New Hampshire with Michael Gurian and Michael
Millard. He opened his first solo guitarmaking and repair studio in 1974. Since
then, he has personally made over two hundred instruments for amateur and professional
musicians in the United States and the Caribbean. Among his customers: Arlo Guthrie,
Michael Lorimer, John Abercrombie, Country Joe MacDonald, the Todd Rundgren band, June
Millington, and Joel Zoss.
Awards
& Special Recognition
Publications
Teaching and Documentation
Grants Received
Professional
Associations, Memberships & Partnerships
Lectures
Awards
& Special Recognition
| 1973 |
"Honor Award of
Merit for Excellence in Workmanship"
given by the American Institute of Architects, New Hampshire Chapter
|
| 1978 |
Smithsonian
Institution, Washington DC
Request for display of a Cumpiano 12 string guitar in national show, "The Harmonious
Craft"
|
| 1993 |
U.S. Patent
co-recipient
for compression-molded carbon-fibre composite guitar soundboard
|
| 1997 |
University of
Massachusetts at Amherst
plaque given at awards banquet, "for his work in preserving the culture of Puerto
Rico through the making of traditional string instruments and undertaking the task of
teaching its art and origins to others."
|
| 1998 |
Smithsonian
Institution, Washington DC
Display of instruments and research, along with student work, to curators of the National
Museum of American History |
Professional Associations, Memberships &
Partnerships
| 1988 to 1996 |
Association of
Stringed Instrument Artisans (ASIA)
Co-founder, board president, board member of international guitarmaker's association |
| 1980 to 1994 |
Rosewood Press
Partner in writing /publishing of guitar-making textbook |
| 1993 to present |
FibreAcoustics
Partner in new start-up company to market new materials for the musical instrument
industry |
| 1990 to 1993 |
Artists in Resonance
co-founder of local instrument-maker's collaborative |
| 1992 to present |
Puerto Rican Cuatro
Project
Co-founder. Community research project documenting the music and musical-craft traditions
of Puerto Rico, focusing on the cuatro--the island's "national.instrument." This
effort has received the endorsement/ financial support of the National Endowment for the
Arts, the Smithsonian Institution, the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, the
Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture (ICPR, an agency
of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico) |
Publications
| 1987 |
GUITARMAKING: Tradition & Technology, A Complete
Reference for the Design & Construction of the Steel-String Folk Guitar & the
Classical Guitar,
400 p. textbook, co authored and self-published by William R. Cumpiano and Jonathan
Natelson"...perhaps the finest
book on making guitars ever produced."(Guitar Player magazine) "...an
unparalleled treasure" (Fine Woodworking magazine) "...the bible of the
craft" (C.F. Martin IV, Martin Guitar Company). Three editions printed. |
| 1994 |
English-language
paperback and hard cover rights of GUITARMAKING purchased by Chronicle Books, San
Francisco CA, and new paperback and hardcover edition published. Copies sold to date,
approximately 30,000. |
| 1980 to present |
* Over 50 technical and
feature articles on guitars, guitar making,
strings and string making in:
Journal of Guitar Acoustics
Frets magazine
Guitar Player Magazine
Fine Woodworking magazine
Stringed Instrument Craftsman
Acoustic Guitar magazine
Guitarmaker, the journal of the Association
of Stringed Instrument Artisans (ASIA)
American Luthierie, the journal of the Guild
of American Luthiers (GAL)
* Subject of feature article, Frets
Magazine: "Frets Visits William Cumpiano" August 1987
* Author of "Manuel Velázquez, guitarrero" article in Houghton-Mifflin
Spanish-language reader, "Portales" (published 1997)
* Currently, writer/consultant for Question &
Answer column for Acoustic Guitar Magazine
|
Teaching & Documentation Grants
Received
| 1992 |
National Endowment for
the Arts |
| 1994 |
Massachusetts Foundation
for the Humanities |
| 1994 and 1998 |
Massachusetts Cultural
Council |
| 1993, 1994 and 1995 |
Connecticut Council of
the Arts |
| 1995 |
New England Foundation
for the Arts |
Lectures
| Guitar Setup Procedures, lecture
before the Guild of American Luthiers, Symposium '88. Boston, MA |
| History of the European Craft Guild
System, lecture before a gathering of the Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans,
Symposium '92, Lafayette, PA |
| The Cuatro is My Flag: a social
history of the Puerto Rican Cuatro lecture before the Hispanic Students Association at the
Five-College Consortium, Amherst College, April 97, Amherst MA |
| Workshop on cuatro-making at the
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, November
1998 |
|
