Biography
A multiple-prize winning and critically acclaimed choral, orchestral and opera conductor and song accompanist, William Vann is equally at home on the podium or at the piano and is particularly renowned for his revival performances and recordings of lost and lesser-known works of vocal and choral music by British composers.
Gramophone, reviewing Purer than Pearl, Albion Records’ 2016 disc of Vaughan Williams song, reserved “a special word of praise for William Vann’s deft pianism”; his revivals of Hubert Parry’s Judith and Prometheus Unbound have been heralded by the press and audiences alike. Judith at Royal Festival Hall “was an unalloyed triumph for William Vann…he had complete command of the score and evident belief in the music” (Seen and Head International) and his studio recordings of Judith and Prometheus Unbound have been awarded a host of accolades, including Gramophone Recording of the Month. He studies conducting with Martyn Brabbins and in 2024 he will take up the role of Chorus Master at The Grange Festival for productions of The Rake’s Progress and Tosca.
Born in Bedford, he was a Chorister at King’s College, Cambridge and a Music Scholar at Bedford School. He subsequently read law and took up a choral scholarship at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was taught the piano by Peter Uppard, and studied piano accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music with Malcolm Martineau and Colin Stone.
William has collaborated across the world with a vast array of singers and instrumentalists, among them the Academy of Ancient Music, Britten Sinfonia, London Mozart Players and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen CBE, Mary Bevan, Sophie Bevan, Katie Bray, David Butt Philip, Allan Clayton, Dame Sarah Connolly, Neal Davies, Sarah Fox, James Gilchrist, Thomas Gould, Johnny Herford, Gareth John, Guy Johnston, Jennifer Johnston, Jack Liebeck, Njabulo Madlala, Pumeza Matshikiza, Aoife Miskelly, Ann Murray DBE, Matthew Rose, Kathryn Rudge, Carolyn Sampson, Brindley Sherratt, Julia Sitkovetsky, Nicky Spence, Toby Spence, Andrew Staples, Henry Waddington, Kitty Whately, Roderick Williams and the Benyounes and Navarra String Quartets. Recent performances have included appearances at Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Royal Opera House, at the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Oxford Lieder and Machynlleth Festivals, the Northern Ireland Festival of Voice (broadcast on Radio 3) and abroad in France, Germany (on live ZDF television), Ireland, Italy, Nigeria, South Africa (National Arts Festival) and Sweden.
He has recorded over twenty discs with Albion, Champs Hill, Chandos, Delphian, Etcetera, Navona and SOMM, including a recent ground-breaking four-disc set of Vaughan Williams folk song settings on Albion with Mary Bevan, Nicky Spence, Roderick Williams and Jack Liebeck.
His many prizes for piano accompaniment include the Wigmore Song Competition Jean Meikle Prize for a Duo (with Johnny Herford), the Gerald Moore award, the Royal Overseas League Accompanists’ Award, a Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust award, the Concordia-Serena Nevill Prize, the Association of English Singers and Speakers Accompanist Prize, the Great Elm Awards Accompanist Prize, the Sir Henry Richardson Scholarship and the Hodgson Fellowship in piano accompaniment at the RAM.
In addition to his performances of standard song repertoire, he has also either commissioned or given the first performances of new songs and song cycles by Christian Alexander, Joseph Atkins, Martin Eastwood, Ian Venables, David Nield and Graham Ross (the latter two at Wigmore Hall). He recently conducted Roderick Williams and the London Mozart Players performing his own arrangement for chamber orchestra of George Butterworth’s Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad.
He is an experienced competition adjudicator, recently judging the Final of the Association of English Singers and Speakers Patricia Routledge Competition, the Final of the Trinity Laban English Song Competition and the Whitgift School Piano Competition.
William is also the founder and Artistic Director of the London English Song Festival, the Director of Music at the Royal Hospital Chelsea and the Music Director of Dulwich Choral Society. He is an Associate of the RAM, a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, a Trustee of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, a Samling Artist, a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, the Chairman of Kensington and Chelsea Music Society and a regular conductor and vocal coach at the Dartington and Oxenfoord International Summer Schools.
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