Westney awarded AMT Article of the Year.

William Westney's article "Essential Skills: Risks and Rewards," was selected as the 2006 American Music Teacher Article of the Year.

Westney holds a B.A, degree from Queens College, New York, and a doctor's performance degree from the Yale School of Music, all with highest academic distinctions. He studied in Italy under a Fulbright grant. Westney's performing credentials include top piano prize in the Geneva International Competition, top prize in Radiotelevisione Italiana auditions, recitals at New York's Lincoln Center, in London, Taiwan and Korea, throughout Italy on a U.S. State Department tour and on NPR's "Performance Today." He has appeared as concerto soloist with such orchestras as the Houston Symphony, San Antonio Symphony and l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and he has solo recordings for Musical Heritage Society and CRI. The CRI recording, the first ever of music by futurist Leo Ornstein, was cited by Newsweek magazine as one of the "Ten Best American-Music Recordings" of the year.

As an educator, Westney is in demand internationally as a workshop leader (the "Un-Master Class"), lecturer, writer and private consultant. He was awarded the Certificate of Merit from the Yale School of Music Alumni Association for his innovative work as an artist/teacher. He has also received three special teaching awards at Texas Tech University, where he holds two endowed positions, Browning Artist-in-Residence and Paul Whitfield Horn Professor of Music.

His lectures address interdisciplinary issues such as practice psychology, performance-related injuries, and learning and creativity. He has presented at professional meetings in London, Manchester, Chicago, Dallas, Stanford, California and Asia, and for many groups of music teachers and students throughout the United States and abroad.

Westney was recently named to the 2005-2010 roster of the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (Fulbright Commission) "Senior Specialist" program, which provides international residencies under the sponsorship of the U.S. government.