Ice Matters

Bill Covitz is the owner of Ice MattersTM, an ice carving business he founded in 1999, although ice was not his first love. Bill is a former chef and a 1991 alumnus of the Hyde Park, New York-based Culinary Institute of America. Bill worked as a chef at fine dining restaurants around the United States for several years, specializing in French cuisine, and also as a private chef in France and Belgium. He was happy in his job as a chef, so he went exploring for a new way to express himself artistically, leaving the hot kitchen for the chilly freezer. He was born and raised in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and decided to return to his hometown to start an ice carving business. He now creates ice masterpieces for country clubs, hotels, banquet facilities, restaurants, and individuals around Connecticut in a 12 degree studio. He won the Grand Championship in the National Ice Carving Association's Nationals in 2004, placing first on both days of the two-day competition. Bill had been undefeated in local events for several seasons when he received this accolade. He finished second in the world at the World Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks, Alaska, in March 2006. After a few years away from competition, he returned to the National Ice Carving Association's Nationals in February 2009 and placed second with his Praying Mantis design....his favorite to date! Creating ice instruments on a Norwegian mountaintop, which he has done every year since January 2006, has been an interesting task, and he intends to continue making ice music possible in the future. With a four-city tour in February and a trip to Greenland with a Canadian production team in pursuit of the perfect ice in August, 2013 proved to be a busy ice music travel season. He built instruments for Terje Isungset, a Norwegian musician, at each place. The 200th anniversary of Norway's independence was honored in 2014. Bill built the stage and ice instruments for the event, as well as replicating structures in ice for the Norwegian government. Bill constructed ice instruments for the 10th annual ice music festival in Geilo in 2015, after producing stunning snow creations in Lilehammer. He went back to Norway in 2019 to make snow sculptures for a top-secret fairytale project...shhhh.