Richardson receives lifetime achievement award from Glenn Miller Birthplace Society

Dr. William Richardson, a professor of music at Northwest Missouri State University, was honored recently for his service to a historical society and festival honoring a legendary band leader and musician.

The Glenn Miller Birthplace Society (GMBS), during its annual Glenn Miller Festival on June 7 in Clarinda, Iowa, presented Richardson with its lifetime achievement award, which is given to society employees and other individuals who have contributed to the society’s mission and programs.

Dr. William Richardson is pictured performing with the Northwest Jazz Ensemble last fall. (Northwest Missouri State University photo)

Richardson has been an active member of the GMBS Big Band, an ensemble comprising musicians throughout the United States, since the early 2000s and has served as a judge for the GMBS Music Scholarship competition for the last decade. The Northwest Jazz Ensemble, which Richardson conducts, also is a frequent performer at the Glenn Miller Festival’s Big Band Breakfast. 

A Northwest faculty member since 1999, Richardson conducts jazz ensembles and teaches applied trumpet, among other courses in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts. He served as Northwest’s first Dennis C. Dau Endowed Professor of Music from 2018 to 2021 and was a visiting professor of trumpet as a Fulbright Scholar in 2010 at the Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music in Riga, Latvia. 

He also is a longtime member of the St. Joseph Symphony Orchestra in addition to performing with the St. Joseph Big Band and The Phil Collins Experience.

He earned his Bachelor of Music Education in instrumental music at the University of Central Missouri and a master’s degree at Florida State University. He holds a doctorate in trumpet performance from the University of Texas at Austin.