A peek into the life of ex-pat William Bouton, Munich Symphony's first chair violinist, artist, and gallery owner.
William Bouton’s past as a musician and art student at California State University at San Francisco in 1969 might lead one to expect him to be playing in an aging rock band or perfecting his graffiti techniques. Instead the 48-year-old is, today, an accomplished mix of first concert -master violinist for the Munich Symphony Orchestra, composer, artist and gallery owner. His California-hippie roots – “In high school our orchestra performed a piece called ‘Jewel-encrusted Butterfly Wing Explosion’” – add an eclectic dimension to his delightfully laid-back personality. Bouton comes by his musical talents honestly. His mother was a pianist. His music-teacher father played trumpet during the big-band era. What drew Bouton to the violin? “I had a crush on my babysitter when I was four,” guffaws Bouton. “She played violin to get me to sleep. I asked for lessons the next day.” Within several years, the young talent was playing difficult pieces from memory. At age eleven, Bouton won his first award for his second love, art. The violinist says the decision between art and music as a college major was made quickly. “One word says it all:” recalls Bouton, “Vietnam. I was lucky enough to belong to the years when going to college got you out of the draft. My Dad helped me get an audition at his alma mater, Cal. State U., I was able to play an extremely complicated piece from memory, and was admitted immediately for September. My draft date would have been October.” His music major and art minor, led to masters and doctoral work at the University of Cincinnati Conservatory, the Julliard School and the University of London, all under the tutelage of laureled violinist Dorothy DeLay. Interested in working in Europe, Bouton applied for, and landed a job with Denmark’s Aarhus Symphony Orchestra in 1980. The gig, which lasted for a year before Bouton joined the Munich Symphony, gave him the rare opportunity to combine his talents. The Danish orchestra commissioned him to design and draw an ad campaign featuring eleven of the world’s greatest composers, past and present. The poster, produced from a pencil and charcoal sketch, was so well received, the number of season ticket holders doubled. In addition to performing with the Munich Symphony, Bouton has continued to paint and exhibit his works locally and in the U.S. Frustrated by the contemporary art world, “It’s a tough market to get into, to become known,” the artist opened his own gallery at Baaderstrasse 23 in February of this year. “I have always wanted to represent myself. No more packing and unpacking of paintings! But more importantly, I wanted to create a space for other up-and-coming artists to show their works, artists who don’t yet have chances.” Bouton’s collection, drawn from decades of work, displays an unusual technique, one he feels he may have invented. “It’s a lifting process,” Bouton explains, “I paint the background colors, then ‘unpaint’ figures onto the field with turpentine. I’m not saying I invented the technique, but let’s just say I haven’t heard of any one else doing it, and I came up with it on my own.” While he admits to leaning toward surrealism, “some of my stuff starts to look like Dali, but I don’t want it to, I’m trying to get away from that,” pieces such as his Danish orchestra advertisement are almost photographically realistic depictions of people. Bouton composes music in his spare time, his most recent work is for tenor and piano based on Le Fleur de Mal, by Charles Baudelaire. “I have lots of unfinished pieces which I hope to find the time to work on,” smiles the Konzertmeister, “It takes time to come up with something new. It’s not like in my high school days when you could get away with composing the strangest things. Along with ‘Jewel-encrusted Butterfly’ there was ‘Contra bassoon, Piccolo and Popcorn.’ The musicians wore sunglasses with a music staff taped on them, and played to five popcorn poppers. It was hilarious!” Bouton lives in the Haidhausen section of Munich with wife Gisela, who breeds Arabian horses, and five-year-old son, Michael. Baby number two is due July 4, much to the delight of the American ex-pat.