A multiple-prize winning and critically acclaimed conductor and 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 recent revival of Hubert Parry’s oratorio 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). His studio recording of Judith was released to critical acclaim on Chandos Records in March 2020 and was subsequently shortlisted in the 2020 Gramophone Awards.

William is 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.
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 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, Roderick Williams and the Benyounes and Navarra String Quartets. Recent performances have included appearances at Royal Festival Hall, the Royal Opera House, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Sage, Gateshead, St John’s, Smith Square and the Holywell Music Room, 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, Nigeria, South Africa (National Arts Festival) and Sweden.