1. Dan Band, Williams has worked on a number of other projects including: award-winning photography, releasing four CDs, writing a stageplay and working on an opera based on the courts martial of Henry Ossian Flipper, the first black graduate from West Point.
Cognizant of the opportunities he had, as well as those he did not due to a childhood in which he moved often, Kimo Williams speaks to students about his history, their future and their need to combat mediocrity.
James Kimo Williams was born in Amityville, New York, and spent much of his childhood divided between US Air Force bases, and on his grandparents' sharecropper farm in North Carolina, where he picked tobacco, plowed fields and tended livestock on their rural farm.
Kimo Williams was so inspired by this concert and the music of Jimi Hendrix, that he dedicated himself to music and playing guitar.
In 1976 Kimo Williams met his music partner and future wife Carol, a fellow Berklee student and married two years later.
The Soul Coordinators was born of this request and started Kimo Williams' long resume of performances, both with bands and on his own.
Kimo Williams went on to attend Officer Candidate School and was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in 1980.
Kimo Williams taught at Sherwood Conservatory of Music in Chicago, and in the Music Department at Columbia College Chicago.
Kimo Williams completed his military service in the Army Reserves by becoming the Bandmaster for the 85th Division Army Reserve Band, and retired from the Army Reserves as a Chief Warrant Officer in 1996.
In 1997, Kimo Williams wrote the music for the Steppenwolf Theatre production of A Streetcar Named Desire, leading to his partnership with Gary Sinise and, in 2003, the creation of the Lt.
Kimo Williams's compositions include works for chamber ensembles and orchestras and have been performed by groups worldwide, including the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Sinfonietta.
Kimo Williams remains as of 2011 a tenured associate professor teaching music.
Kimo Williams was named Chicagoan of the Year in 2006, and was recognized for a lifetime of work including the 1998 founding of the United States Vietnam Art Program.