Biography
William Dutton was born in 1995 in Leeds and started his international music career as a singer.
Winning the BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year in 2006 enabled him to perform with world class soloists, orchestras, conductors and celebrities including José Carreras, Alfie Boe, Aled Jones and Ken Dodd. He made his BBC proms début in July 2007 as a soloist in Fauré’s Requiem with the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales conducted by Thierry Fischer, and his Welsh Proms début in July 2008 as the Youth in Mendelssohn’s Elijah alongside Bryn Terfel.
Film credits include ‘First Boy’ in a production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute’ directed by Kenneth Branagh. In 2007 William was signed by Universal Classics and Jazz as a member of ‘The Choirboys’.
William asked to play the violin aged 3 and began taking lessons when he was 4. In 2004 his talent was recognised by the Kazakh virtuoso Marat Bisengaliev; he subsequently studied with Marat and his wife Vassilia and then with Raimonda Koço in Leeds. In 2008 William gained a place at the Yehudi Menuhin School where he studied with Lutsia Ibragimova.
As a pupil of the Yehudi Menuhin School, William regularly performed as both a soloist and in chamber music recitals. He led the viola section of the Yehudi Menuhin School Orchestra in the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, Switzerland in 2012, playing on Lord Menuhin’s Testore viola. In November 2013 William led the 1st violins of the YMS orchestra as they toured Holland, giving concerts in The Hague and in Amsterdam where they accompanied the finalists of the Youri Egorov International Piano Competition.
Whilst studying at the Yehudi Menuhin School, William worked alongside artists such as Heinrich Schiff, Jeremy Menuhin, Alina Ibragimova, Valeriy Sokolov, Charlie Siem and Paul Watkins, playing in venues including the Menuhin Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, the Barbican, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall and The Mansion House.
In April 2014, William won the Strings Final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition, and in 2017 he was awarded 3rd Prize at the Concours d’Interpretation Musicale de Lausanne.
After completing his bachelor’s degree in 2017 at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne under the tutelage of Svetlana Makarova, William went on to study conducting at the Italian Conducting Academy in Milan where he studied with Gilberto Serembe.
In 2022 William made his UK conducting debut at the Harrogate Music Festival with the Amici ensemble and is currently serving as principal conductor of the Bridge Ensemble in Leeds.
