bio

William Seiji Marsh is a guitarist and educator based in Portland, Oregon. Born in Yokohama, Japan, he moved to Oregon at a young age, where he began pursuing music. William received his Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of Oregon in Eugene, where he gained much experience playing with the university’s many ensembles, as well as with local and visiting musicians. While in school, William was a founding member of The Essentials, a nine-piece soul/R&B group. William later joined The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, with whom he is currently recording and touring internationally. William performs as a sideman with many projects, including the Joe Manis Trio, Halie Loren, Nicole Berke, Itsy, and many others. William has performed with many musicians, including Ron Miles, Tatsuya Nakatani, Mark Pender, Mark Gould, Brian McWhorter. In the studio, he has had the opportunity to record with Billy Barnett (whose credits include the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, Thomas Mapfumo, and the Oregon Bach Festival), Lance Miller (University of Oregon), and Sean Flora (engineer for the Shins, Franz Ferdinand, the Black Keys, Cake). William teaches privately in Eugene at Harmony Roadhouse Studios, where he was co-director and co-owner from 2009 to 2011. William also has his own private lesson studio at the Falcon Art Community in Portland. William has also been a faculty member at many music workshops, including the University of Oregon’s Summer Jazz Improvisation Camp, The Lesson Factory’s youth Rock Band camp, and the Oregon Festival of Music’s Summer Jazz Camp. In his free time, William enjoys watching movies and reading novels and short stories. Some of his favorite authors include Jorge Luis Borges, Haruki Murakami, Tom Robbins and Italo Calvino. William is also an avid circuit-bender and amateur effect-pedal maker. You can view some video demonstrations of his finished pieces here.