Bill Ochs (1946–2016) was an American scholar, teacher, performer, and producer of Irish traditional music whose focus was on the tin whistle and uilleann pipes. Born in Newark, New Jersey, he was introduced to Irish music as a teenager in the early 1960s through the music of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. After taking an undergraduate degree in French and theater at Wesleyan University in 1968, Bill moved to New York where he earned an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, intending a career teaching theater. He soon abandoned that path for a new one, though. Having found an old Clarke whistle and taught himself to play by following along with Tommy Makem recordings, he became completely fascinated by Irish traditional music, seeking out opportunities to hear the many Irish immigrant musicians living in New York and becoming a very active early member of the Irish Arts Center, where he taught music classes from 1972 to 2015. 

Bill was inspired to learn the uilleann pipes after attending a mesmerizing concert by Liam O’Flynn at Washington Square Church in Manhattan in 1971. He began lessons with Tom Standeven, commuting weekly to Philadelphia, and also studied with Andy Conroy in New York. With letters of introduction from Standeven, he met and was tutored by Seamus Ennis and Willie Clancy during two early trips to Ireland. In 1976, with support from an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, Bill spent three months in Galway studying intensively with master piper Pat Mitchell. For three decades, Bill performed extensively on whistle and pipes throughout the East Coast and other parts of the U.S., notably as the piper with the Green Fields of America and on a solo tour of the country sponsored by the Irish American Cultural Institute.

Eventually, his interest in teaching became more compelling to him than performing, and it is perhaps as a generous, dedicated teacher of whistle, pipes, and flute that he was best known. In 1988 he published a highly regarded whistle tutor (The Clarke Tin Whistle, now reissued as The Bill Ochs Tin Whistle Handbook) that reflected his clear pedagogy and accessible style. He taught countless private students and group classes over the years, both at the Irish Arts Center and in his home studio in Hell’s Kitchen, and he was a sought-after instructor at Tionóls, the Pipers’ Gathering, and other events and workshops in the U.S. He also lectured frequently on the history of pipes and piping.

Bill was deeply interested in the whistle music of Micho Russell. Between 1990 and 1993 he co-organized three U.S. tours for Micho, from which Bill produced a video documentary, “Ireland’s Whistling Ambassador,” and a CD of the same name. He conducted extensive research into the musical and historical contexts of Micho’s playing, and in 2015 he brought out “Micho Russell: Rarities & Old Favorites, 1949–1993,” a double CD of archival recordings he felt best represented Micho’s brilliance and range. He also made meticulous transcriptions of Micho’s playing which can be found on ITMA’s website.