Pianist, composer, scholar and educator William Bares received his Ph.D in ethnomusicology from Harvard University in 2009. He taught at Harvard, Brown, Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory before taking a job as professor of music and co-director of jazz studies at UNC Asheville. His research interests include transatlantic jazz and environmental music. Bares directed the international interdisciplinary conference “Ecomusicologies 2014: Dialogues”—held in Asheville in 2014. He currently serves as the NEH Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at UNC Asheville, and is planning to host a second interdisciplinary conference in 2024. He has published widely, with articles appearing in Jazz Perspectives, Jazz Research Journal, and American Music, among others. His book, “Jazz and the European Dream" is forthcoming on Routledge Press.

Bares is also an active performer. After earning his masters in jazz piano performance from the University of Miami in 1999, he spent most of 2000s playing professionally in New York, Boston and Europe. Since 2011, Bares has been an active member of Asheville's musical community. He was the solo pianist in the Blue Ridge Orchestra's debut of "Rhapsody in Blue,” and coordinated the Sunday "Jazz Showcase" at Asheville’s famed Isis Music Hall. He has released four albums as a leader or co-leader, and his modern jazz group, The Core, was voted "Best Jazz Group” in the Mountain XPress Best of Western North Carolina awards.