As of August 2025, Bill O’Neil has retired, having completed a 33-year career at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, formerly the University of Texas Pan American, where he had been on faculty since 1992. Bill is a 1990 DMA graduate of the University of Minnesota, where he was a student of Dr. John Anderson. He has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Omaha Symphony, the Symphony Orchestra of Nuevo Leon in Mexico, and the Victoria (TX) Symphony. He has been featured soloist with several orchestras and bands.
Bill is a passionate chamber musician, finding special delight in music for clarinet with strings, a natural direction to go since his wife, Gail is a violinist and two daughters have been cellists. Additionally, Bill loves the clarinet choir. He founded and directed the UTRGV Clarinet Symphony, which performs original compositions and arrangements for clarinet choir. He has arranged numerous works for the ensemble, which generally play a symphony, a concerto, and one or two shorter works in a concert. Bill performs on a Yamaha CSV Bb clarinet, Yamaha 62 Eb clarinet, and a Yamaha CX A clarinet with Mitchell Lurie crystal mouthpieces, Mitchell Lurie ligature, and Mitchell Lurie 3-3 ½ reeds.
In all, Bill and Gail have three daughters, nine grandchildren, and four beautiful cats. His plans for retirement include more arranging of music for clarinet choir, establishing a new group to write music for, continuing to direct his church choir, recitaling, and teaching as invited in local high schools and middle schools.