About this Artist

William Roper is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores histories and myths of place, ethnicity, culture, and self. His work is located in African American oral traditions. He is a storyteller, a griot. As a tubaist he has toured the Americas, Europe and Japan as a soloist and with ensembles. He has released 15 recordings as a leader/co-leader and is represented on 70+ recordings including projects by the L.A. Philharmonic, Wadada Leo Smith, Wild Up, Yusef Lateef, Elton John, Aluna George, and others, as well as several motion picture scores. He has established several ensembles including Purple Gums, Judicanti Responsura and CuZns. He founded Tomato Sage Consortium, a presenting organization existing today as an independent record label. Collaboration plays an important role in his output. He has created works in partnership with choreographers, dramatists, performance artists and videographers.

Roper creates art videos as well as documentary works that examine the lives of African and Asian American artists. His videos have been featured on live and online festivals. As a visual artist his mediums are painting, assemblage, digital art and graphic scores. His work has been exhibited in the U.S. and Europe.

Roper has held residencies at Djerassi Resident Artist Program, the Oberpfalzer Küntslerhaus in Germany and was a Fellow of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission in Japan. He has received awards for work in composition, performance, theatre and dance from the NEA, CAC, LADCA, American Composers Forum, Meet the Composer, American Music Center, Durfee Foundation, Eastside Arts Initiative, Center for Cultural Innovation and NewMusicUSA. He has fulfilled commissions from the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, Heidi Duckler Dance, Gloria Newman Dance Theatre, Rudy Perez Dance, Koan Quartet, USC Max Kade Institute, SASSAS, The Smudges, Arts Council Tokyo and individuals.