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William Winant

American percussionist

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ3569030
Source-derived summary

William Winant (born 1953) is an American percussionist.

In addition to his work in contemporary classical music—notably performing Lou Harrison's compositions—Winant has worked in a variety of genres, including noise rock, free improvisation and jazz. Notable collaborators include Glenn Spearman, Thurston Moore, Sonic Youth, Mr. Bungle (with whom he toured in support of their albums Disco Volante and California), Secret Chiefs 3, Mondo Cane and Oingo Boingo. A member of the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio, he has also frequently collaborated with John Zorn. He received a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award (2016).

Winant attended the California Institute of the Arts for a couple of years before dropping out to go tour with Oingo Boingo. He later received an undergraduate degree from York University before pursuing graduate work at Mills College in Oakland, California, where he is currently a faculty member. He also gives percussion lessons and teaches the percussion ensemble at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Films

1995 - Musical Outsiders: An American Legacy - Harry Partch, Lou Harrison, and Terry Riley.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “William Winant” is american percussionist. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through William, Winant and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1953, 2016, 1995—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1953-01-01. For this dossier, William, Winant and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american percussionist” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3569030. VIAF identifies the subject as 302181048. The Library of Congress control number is nr88010047. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1953, 2016 and 1995.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William Winant”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William Winant primary sources, William Winant archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William Winant”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from William Winant” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.