Biography

Composer and conductor William Cole was born in London in 1990. He recently made his debut with the Royal Northern Sinfonia conducting Hans Abrahamsen’s Schnee at the Sage Gateshead, and has conducted at international festivals and venues including the Cadogan Hall, Dartington International Summer School, Royaumont and London Sinfonietta Academy. Recent opera work includes Mozart Così fan tutte and Handel Acis and Galatea (Opera Lyrica), Mozart Don Giovanni and Dove Flight (Royal Academy Opera, assistant conductor) and Chabrier Une Education Manquée (Pop-Up Opera). He is Music Director of Filthy Lucre, an immersive mixed-genre night with whom he has worked with artists from dance, film, and performance poetry in music from Xenakis and The Clash.

Recent performances of his music include The Bells of Lübeck at the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s 2017 Composers Day, Her Face Was Full of Woe by Anne Denholm (Harpist to HRH The Prince of Wales) in London and Bangkok, and Versa Est in Luctum for the Britten Sinfonia’s 2014 At Lunch series, alongside projects with ensembles including Kokoro, CHROMA, Psappha and the BBC Singers. His music has been performed across the UK and abroad and regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and in 2015 he was awarded the Lord Mayor’s Composition Prize by the Worshipful Company of Musicians.

William is also in demand as a workshop leader. He has led and facilitated workshops for English Touring Opera’s Turtle Song project, Opera Holland Park’s Inspire series and Wigmore Hall’s Music for Thought programme, and he frequently gives composition workshops in London schools for the Worshipful Company of Musicians.

William studied at Clare College, Cambridge and at the Royal Academy of Music. In the 2017-18 season William combines the roles of Repetiteur Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music and Composer in Residence for the Cambridge University Musical Society.

Musicians’ Company Award: Lord Mayor’s Composition Prize 2015

Page Updated: May 2018