WILLIAM BROWN

William Brown’s illustrious conducting and teaching career spans thirty-eight years.  In June 2018 William retired from teaching after spending twelve years at Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute in Toronto, Ontario. While at the school he founded the national award-winning Lawrence Park Collegiate FLOREAT Choir in the fall of 2006. William’s Choir’s at LPCI won four national titles, including the 2016 Best High School Choir and the Grand Prize of Best Choir in the Federation of Canadian Music Festival National Finals competition.   In addition to his choral responsibilities, William taught strings, conducting the LPCI Symphonic String Orchestra, Junior String Orchestra, and the Senior String Orchestra. In the fall of 2015, William assumed the role of conductor of the LPCI Concert Band; and in 2016, he added the Sapphire Stage Band to his duties.

 

William holds an honours music and education degree from the University of Western Ontario. For ten years he served as artistic director of the Woodstock Fanshawe Singers. In that time, the choir won first prize in the CBC Choral Competition for Amateur Choirs and commissioned twenty-three new choral works by Canadian composers. For fifteen seasons (1996–2011), William served as artistic director and conductor of the ORIANA Women’s Choir, Toronto. During that time, the choir won provincial and national performance awards, released five compact discs, earned national awards for innovative programming, and commissioned over sixty-five new choral works promoting Canadian composers.

 

William’s numerous awards include the TDSB 2018 Teaching Award Finalist, 2016 Toronto Star Award for Teaching Excellence and first prize in the Ontario Arts Council Leslie Bell Conducting Competition. William is featured in the publication Who is Who in Choral Music, the international encyclopedia of choral conductors, composers, and organizers. William is both honoured and privileged to be a contributor in the book, 'I Didn’t Want It to Be Boring' – Conversations about Ruth Watson Henderson’s Life and Music, written by Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt.

 

William has several well-received choral compositions published with earthsongs Choral Music including 'Quant j'ai ouy le tabourin', which won Best Performance of a Canadian Work in the 2004 CBC National Choral Competition; 'Puisque tout passe', which received its national debut in a live performance on CBC national radio; and 'Om', to be published in early 2024. William's composition "Welcome, Yule", performed by Zimfira Poloz and the Toronto Children's Chorus in December 2022, will soon be published by Cypress Choral Music.

 

William is a past president of the ACCC, (The Association of Canadian Choral Conductors, now Choral Canada), and Choirs Ontario. William is active across the country as an adjudicator, clinician, and composer.

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