A multiple-prize winning and critically acclaimed conductor and pianist, William Vann’s musical expertise spans the worlds of opera, orchestral and choral direction, song and jazz. He is particularly renowned for his revival performances and recordings of lost and lesser-known works by British composers, and his recent recording of Hubert Parry’s Prometheus Unbound and Blest Pair of Sirens on Chandos was Gramophone’s Recording of the Month in October 2023. 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. 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.
William has collaborated across the world with a vast array of orchestras, 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. His extensive discography includes recordings for Albion, Champs Hill, Chandos, Delphian, Etcetera, Navona and SOMM.
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.
He is Director of Music at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, where he directs the choir and a programme of concerts in the Royal Hospital’s Wren Chapel, an Associate of the RAM, Musical Director of Dulwich Choral Society, a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, a Trustee of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, a Samling Artist, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, the Chairman of Kensington and Chelsea Music Society and a regular conductor and vocal coach at the Oxenfoord International Summer School.