William Bauer, B.A. Mus. University of Colorado, M.M. University of Texas, is an experienced chamber musician, artistic director, pedagogue, and founding researcher/musician of the Ars Femina Project and Ensemble. Bauer first began curating musical pieces for the ensemble in 1985 and subsequently was part of the research team that collected music written by women before 1800 from libraries and archives in 22 different countries.

The Ars Femina Ensemble was the resident chamber ensemble for Indiana University Southeast from the 1990s to the early 2000s. The main goal of the ensemble was to perform music written by women composers who lived before the 18th century. The group also performed extensive educational outreach activities in addition to their numerous concerts, and taught local children much about historical music and women composers.