Will Ackerman

Windham Hill

William Ackerman, known as Will, was born on November 16, 1949 in Germany and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He attended Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts and studied English and History at Stanford, leaving five credits short to apprentice with a Norwegian boat builder. In 1972 he founded Windham Hill Builders, a carpentry business in Palo Alto, and played for Stanford theater productions and impromptu concerts. His influences include John Fahey, whose Takoma Records inspired him, Jack Kottke, Robbie Basho and Japanese koto music.

He recorded his debut in 1975 at Mantra Studios in San Mateo and released it in 1976 as The Search for the Turtle's Navel, the first Windham Hill record, catalog WHS-C 1001. The 1977 reissue renamed it In Search of the Turtle's Navel. He produced his cousin Alex De Grassi's first record, left carpentry for music full time in 1980 and signed Michael Hedges after hearing him in Palo Alto; George Winston's Autumn brought the label national attention. A&M Records became its distributor in 1982 and the label sold millions of records. Wikipedia lists the Windham Hill roster that defined the sound later called new age as Winston, Hedges, Anger, Marshall, Liz Story and Shadowfax.

In 1984 he moved to Vermont and built Imaginary Road Studios in Dummerston. His albums include It Takes a Year (1977), Childhood and Memory (1979), Passage (1981), Past Light (1983), Conferring with the Moon (1986), Imaginary Roads (1988), The Opening of Doors (1992), Sound of Wind Driven Rain (1998), Hearing Voices (2001), Meditations (2008), New England Roads (2010), Four Guitars (2019), Brothers (2021, with Jeff Oster and Tom Eaton) and Positano Songs (2021). Returning (2004, Mary's Tree) won the Grammy for best new age album, The Gathering was Zone Music Reporter's album of the year in 2012, he received its lifetime achievement award in 2013 and Brothers earned a 2021 Grammy nomination. The walls of his studio carry more than 20 gold and platinum records. Echoes marked 50 years of Windham Hill with an interview in May 2026.