William Peacock, composer and singer
William Peacock is a Boston-based composer, tenor, and countertenor.
William Peacock, composer and singer
William Peacock is a Boston-based composer, tenor, and countertenor.
About
Photo provided by Robert Branning.
William Peacock is a nonbinary American composer and singer. Born in Quincy, Massachusetts, William has spent much of his life living in the South Shore area, most recently basing his activities in Cambridge, MA. William is a graduate of Boston University, where he obtained a bachelor's of music, majoring in vocal performance and composition and theory, as well as a master's of music in composition.
William is both a tenor and countertenor, and is a frequent singer in the Boston choral scene. William's recent engagements as a singer include concerts with Triad: Boston Choral Collective, Ensemble Altera, Nightingale Vocal Ensemble, and Analog Chorale. William has also recently performed with the Tanglewood Chorus and the Boston Symphony Orchestra for their eager return to Symphony Hall in a performance series of Britten's "War Requiem".
As a composer, William was nominated as a finalist for the international Young Composers Competition. William is also a three time recipient of Boston University's Wainwright Prize for composition, winning twice in the category of a "song composed on a sonnet", and once in the category of a "song composed about nature".
William typically writes music for smaller ensembles, including chamber works, solo works, and art song, though he has written several large-scale works as well. Stylistically, William utilizes lyricism among polytonal, freely atonal, and non-functional harmonic contexts, along with biting rhythmic vitality. William's musical language is presented in tandem with a complex (and unnervingly humorous) emotional palette, and is displayed through a critical lens of the social climate at large. As such, the subject matter of these works often pertain to politics and social justice in the modern world, while also embracing levity and the absurd in equal parts.
William’s recent projects include the recent premiere of his Four Fantasy Pieces for flute, Bb clarinet, and bassoon, the upcoming premiere of a song cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano showcasing poetry by Darío Espina Pérez (delayed by COVID-19), and the recent premiere by the Mivos string quartet of his work Repeated Friction, as well as the recent premiere of a brief solo a capella work for soprano by contemporary vocalist Stephanie Lamprea titled Allergies Not So Bad.
When he isn’t composing or singing, William enjoys reading and writing poetry, cooking, baking, playing video games, and keeping informed with current events across the globe.