Glenn Williams

Bitter Jester Music Festival Judge & Verbal Commentator

EDITOR’S NOTE: It should be said right off the bat that Glenn Williams was Bitter Jester Music Fest Founder Nicolas DeGrazia's high school band director and, as such, is partly to blame for this entire enterprise. 😊

“The Bitter Jester events started in Highland Park and have emerged as a formidable regional summer music festival. I’m so proud of the festival and founder & producer Nicolas DeGrazia for working unselfishly to create an event that showcases and teaches student musicians.

The result is an ongoing event that shows the region what it means to be a part of a community that truly values the arts.”

-Glenn Williams

Glenn Williams retired in May of 2021 from Downers Grove South High School, having served as a music teacher and the Fine Arts Department Chair since 2005.  Previously, Mr. Williams was the band director and K-12 Instrumental Music Coordinator at Forest Hills Central High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the band director at Highland Park High School in Highland Park, Illinois.  Mr. Williams also was on the brass/jazz faculty of the Indiana University Summer Music Clinic, and was a member of the jazz faculty and co-coordinator of the Jazz Division at the Blue Lake International Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lake, Michigan, leading the International Jazz Ensemble on European Tours in 2014 and 2017.

Mr. Williams is currently supervising student teachers and field experience students for DePaul University, North Central College and the University of Illinois.  Mr. Williams is also advising graduate students in jazz education for VanderCook College of Music and serving as a mentor for the Illinois Principal Association. 

As a professional performer, Mr. Williams has performed with numerous entertainment and jazz luminaries, including The Four Tops, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Michael Brecker, Kenny Wheeler, and the Blue Lake Faculty Jazz Sextet.  Mr. Williams has also performed with numerous community ensembles including the North Shore Concert Band directed by John Paynter.  In the summer of 1984 Mr. Williams was a member of the Walt Disney World All-American College Marching Band.

Mr. Williams has presented clinics at the IMEC Conference, the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic and the North Carolina Music Educators’ Clinic.  Mr. Williams has conducted numerous band and jazz honor ensembles, including the Illinois All-State Jazz Ensemble and the North Carolina All-State HS Jazz Ensemble.  Mr. Williams helped initiate the BRIDGE program, an ILMEA professional development strand serving first year music teachers in Illinois.  Mr. Williams received the Mary Hoffman Award of Excellence from the ILMEA in 2017.

Mr. Williams expresses deep gratitude to all the teachers, students, colleagues and friends who continually inform his identity as a human, as an artist, and as an educator.