By Roland Sackey
Describing himself as “very active,” William Zinn, composer, violinist and author, took to music at age 13 when he started playing the violin.
The 76-year-old Bayside resident and concertmaster, who serves as a liaison between the conductor and the musicians of the Yonkers Symphony Orchestra, has also had series of books published. Zinn has written many musical pieces and performed at many concerts throughout the nation.
Zinn recently composed a symphony tribute to the city of Yonkers, “Yonkers 2000: A Symphonic Portrait.” The full-scale orchestra tribute was performed on May 20 under the direction of Maestro Jerome Sala, to whom the work was dedicated. The work is a symphonic medley of 10 movements connected by an array of ethnic pieces. Each movement is also a tribute to one of the many ethnic groups that have settled and thrived in Yonkers.
Zinn also composed the International Anthem for World Peace sung at the United Nations. In 1980, through his International Symphony for World Peace, Zinn established a cultural exchange with China.
He also founded the Queens Festival Orchestra in Bayside in 1965 and the International Symphony for World Peace in 1979, which raises money for programs in poor countries.
As an author, he has written the Dictionary of Musical Themes and has also written 6,500 wise sayings (“Haste may make waste, but slowness produces less;” “To own anything is an illusion;” “A curious mind does not need a college nor an institution to learn;” “The greatest attribute of a human being is to be humane”). His main goal is to write 10,000 sayings and get them published in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Saying that he “looks like a Renaissance type of guy,” Zinn is very much involved in many organizations either as president or trustee. He was an adjunct professor at New York University in 1987. Zinn also worked with the New York City Board of Education as an electrical engineer draftsman and the New York City Fire Department as inspector of combustible standpipes and gas pump systems. Asked what he enjoys doing the most, Zinn said, “I like to compose, I am more of a composer.”
Zinn has written many original pieces with an ethnic perceptive. In recent years he has composed a trio for piano, harp and cello in the Japanese style, an elegy to Mother Theresa, a symphonic cycle celebrating the seven major Jewish holidays and Yonkers 2000, which celebrates ethnic diversity.
Zinn is also an internationally known arranger of music for strings. His most recent work is a volume of arrangements for string quartet of the music of Duke Ellington. Among other recent projects is a rhapsody for violin on the Siegfried Idyll of Richard Wagner.
As a violinist, Zinn has played for several symphony orchestras, among them the Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Baltimore, and Indianapolis orchestras, and with the New Britain Symphony as concertmaster. He was also founder and first violinist of the Ragtime String Quartet. Zinn was concertmaster for the Queens Symphony Orchestra from 1969 to 1971.
Zinn, who has been a resident of Bayside since 1953, is married to Sophia and they have two children: David, a piano composer and Karen, a librarian.
Zinn was also listed in the 1999 edition of Who's Who In America.
As to the future he said, “I will continue to compose music and write my wise sayings. Also, I will perform occasionally.”
Reach reporter Roland Sackey by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 139.
