William Howard

Pianist William Howard has performed across more than 40 countries both on his own and during his long tenure with London’s Schubert Ensemble. His interpretive focus spans nineteenth-century repertoire, Czech music from multiple periods, and a wide range of contemporary scores.

While still in utero, Howard’s mother played recordings in the belief that music exposure would shape his future career. Childhood exposure to a French aunt’s performances on the family Bechstein further deepened his interest, leading him to begin lessons at age seven. Local instructor Rosemary Hammond recognized his promise and continued teaching him even while he attended a boarding school offering minimal musical instruction. Subsequent studies brought him under the guidance of Vlado Perlemuter and Peter Feuchtwanger. In 1983 he helped establish the Schubert Ensemble and stayed with the ensemble through its dissolution in 2018. Recognition arrived early on an international scale: his interpretations of Janáček earned an award from the Czech Ministry of Culture in 1986.

Frequent London engagements have included repeated appearances at Wigmore Hall and the Southbank Centre. Summer engagements have regularly taken him to the Brighton, Bath, and Cheltenham festivals, and he has served repeatedly on the faculty of the Dartington International Summer School.

Over the years Howard has commissioned numerous new pieces. His 2011 account of Pavel Zemek Novak’s 24 Preludes and Fugues received a double five-star notice in BBC Music Magazine. Building on that success, he launched an ongoing project inviting contemporary composers—including Nico Muhly, Howard Skempton, and Joby Talbot—to write “love songs” for solo piano. Two resulting albums found favor both with contemporary-music listeners and with Classic FM, which selected the first collection, William Howard plays Sixteen Love Songs for Piano, as its “Drive Discovery” of the week.

As soloist and chamber musician, Howard has appeared on roughly forty discs issued by Orchid Classics, Champs Hill, Chandos, and other labels. Among his noted Czech-music releases is the 1995 recording of Zdeněk Fibich’s often graphically sexual Moods, Impressions, & Souvenirs. In 2020 he was featured on an Orchid Classics album devoted to music by Howard Skempton.