William P. Vance, III

Reno native William “Billy” Vance joined the Reno Wind Symphony in May 2006. He began playing the flute in the sixth grade at age 11, switching to Alto Saxophone in Middle School and finally to Tuba and Euphonium during his freshman year in high school, where he later became section leader and won first chair in the Washoe County Honor Band in his junior year.

After graduating from McQueen High School in 1999, William moved to Southern California for his job and took a brief break from playing, but missed the camaraderie of being in a wind band and joined the Shoreline Concert Band, an ensemble of the Long Beach Municipal Band, in 2003 until moving back to the Reno area in 2006. William currently plays regularly with the Boca Brass Quintet, the Reno Municipal Band each summer, and was a member of the Hickman Brass Ensemble and has performed with the Reno Pops Orchestra. William attributes much of his success in life to being part of musical ensembles, which has taught him teamwork, leadership and to have the tenacity to follow through on your goals much like pushing through to the end of a musical performance.

William earned his Bachelor of Science in Accounting in 2016 from the University of Phoenix, and went on to earn his Master of Accountancy from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2020. William is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Nevada and a Corporate Accounting Manager at Sierra Nevada Corporation.

Interestingly, William has a small collection of vintage Martin tubas and sousaphones and constructed the tuba he plays most often in his garage from a 1935 Martin “Mammoth” tuba body and more modern King valve section.