William Gaunt was born in Yorkshire and received his early musical education there as a chorister at Ripon Cathedral. Following a choral scholarship to King’s College, Cambridge, where he read Classics, he commenced his professional career with successive posts in the choirs of Christ Church, Oxford, and Westminster Cathedral.

 

William has developed a busy and versatile career as both a soloist and a consort singer. He remains strongly committed to working as an ensemble musician, and in this capacity appears frequently across the UK and Europe, performing and recording with such groups as the Gabrieli Consort, Gallicantus, Alamire, Tenebrae and Theatre of Voices.

 

As a soloist William performs across the wide spectrum of oratorio and concert repertoire. Performances have included Carissimi Historia di Abraham et Isaac and Jephte; Monteverdi Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610; Purcell Come, ye Sons of Art and Why are all the muses mute?; Bach Johannes-Passion, Matthäus-Passion, Mass in B Minor, Magnificat, and numerous cantatas; Handel Messiah, Acis and Galatea, Judas Maccabaeus, Brockes-Passion and Samson; Haydn Creation, Stabat Mater and Nelson Mass; Mendelssohn St Paul; Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle and Stabat Mater; Fauré Requiem and L’horizon chimérique; Stravinsky Les Noces; Pärt Passio. He has appeared with the Gabrieli Consort/Paul McCreesh; the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge/Sir Stephen Cleobury; the Choir of Christ Church, Oxford/Stephen Darlington; Dunedin Consort/John Butt; Arcangelo/Jonathan Cohen; Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht/Johannes Leertouwer; Portland Baroque Orchestra/Desmond Earley; Chamber Choir Ireland, Ars Nova Copenhagen and Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir/Paul Hillier; Orchester Wiener Akademie/Martin Haselböck; Freiburger Barockorchester/Kristian Bezuidenhout.

 

William’s solo recordings include Blow Odes with Arcangelo/Cohen; Monteverdi Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610 with both the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Howarth and the Dunedin Consort/Butt; Fauré Requiem with the London Symphony Orchestra Chamber Ensemble/Short; Handel Messiah with Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht/Leertouwer.