William Vann has been appointed Musical Director of The London Chorus, to succeed Ronald Corp, who sadly died earlier this year. He is delighted to follow in Ron’s footsteps in leading this distinguished choir.
William Vann has been appointed Musical Director of The London Chorus, to succeed Ronald Corp, who sadly died earlier this year. He is delighted to follow in Ron’s footsteps in leading this distinguished choir.
Parry’s Prometheus Unbound, released on Chandos Records in September 2023, has received a host of accolades and awards in the ensuing few months.
William will be performing twice at Wigmore Hall this Autumn, read Wigmore Hall’s season announcement here.
With Kitty Whately on 23rd October.
With Mary Bevan, Nicky Spence and Jack Liebeck on 11th December.
Earth’s Wide Bounds, featuring the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, musical director William Vann and organist Joshua Ryan will be released on 4th March 2022.
This album is a choral compendium of works by Ralph Vaughan Williams comprising premiere recordings of both the Communion Service in G minor and the Nocturne: By the Bivouac’s Fitful Flame, plus the Te Deum in G and hymns and anthems including Valiant for Truth. The Communion Service begins with sung responses to the ten commandments, read by Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury.
Featuring Mary Bevan (soprano), Nicky Spence (tenor), Roderick Williams (baritone), Jack Liebeck (violin) and me at the piano, plus some glorious moments with a superb, socially distanced chorus, we recorded this back in the height of lockdown, and the result will be a four disc series of the complete Vaughan Williams Folk Songs for voice(s) and piano. If you don’t know this music, and not many people do, you’ll be blown away by the incredible variety and inventive way in which Vaughan Williams set some of the most beautiful melodies in the English language. Pre-order your copies now! I’ve included a link to Presto Classical’s website so you can avoid giving even more money to Jeff Bezos.
I was thrilled to be appointed Musical Director of Dulwich Choral Society in March, though sadly because of the ensuing lockdown, I haven’t yet been able to rehearse with the society in person. However, I’m delighted to have been working every week with them via Zoom, a series of podcasts and, shortly, a remote recording project, and am hoping it won’t be too long before we can all make music together!
It has been sad to type “THIS CONCERT HAS BEEN CANCELLED” above all my forthcoming engagements today, but I hope that once we have fought our way through the COVID-19 epidemic, classical music will recover and we can once again meet and make music together. In the meanwhile, I’m focusing my energy on 1) my children 2) Royal Hospital Chelsea (where I am the paper delivery boy each morning and have been playing the trumpet again for the first time in about 15 years) and 3) several exciting recording projects. I wish you, and your families, all the best over the coming months.
The world premiere recording of Parry’s oratorio Judith is released on Chandos on Friday 28th February – take a look at the Chandos website here and download/pre-order your copy!
13th September 2019: Albion Records’ latest release The Song of Love is out today! I’m on the piano, accompanying Kitty Whately and Roderick Williams on a disc that was a huge pleasure to record and includes one of my favourite song cycles of all time, Ralph Vaughan Williams’s The House of Life. Kitty is the first ever female artist to record the whole cycle, even though the premiere in 1904 at Bechstein Hall (now Wigmore Hall) was sung by the contralto Edith Clegg. Also on the disc are no fewer than sixteen premiere recordings by Vaughan Williams, including the simple but stunning Quant li Louseignolz, sung by Roderick Williams in Medieval French and the inspiration for the nightingale on the CD sleeve. You can buy it directly from Albion Records, or from Presto Classical here.
Delighted that the press reaction to the revival of Parry’s Judith has been so positive. Check out some of the reviews here: