Born and brought up in Yorkshire, William Dutton is fast making a name for himself as one of the most exciting and sensitive young artists in the UK. Having won the Strings Final of BBC Young Musician of the Year, he is now emerging as a dynamic young conductor, having been the first British conductor ever admitted to the Italian Conducting Academy in Milan where he studied with Gilberto Serembe.
William began his international musical career as a singer, winning BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister of the year in 2006. He then went on to make his BBC Proms debut in 2007, was signed by Universal Music as a member of ‘The Choirboys’ and starred in Kenneth Branagh’s film adaptation of ‘The Magic Flute’. Following his early violin studies with the Kazakh virtuoso violinist Marat Bisengaliev, he went on to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School and in 2014 won the strings category of BBC Young Musician of the Year. In 2020, William was the first British pupil to be invited to study conducting at the Italian Conducting Academy in Milan, and made his UK conducting debut two years later.
William is delighted to be launching Cuore Chamber Orchestra, a new professional orchestra for Yorkshire on 8th May at the Royal Hall, Harrogate. The orchestra will be made from the finest young, international, world-class musicians who currently work in orchestras across the UK and in Europe. As its Artistic Director, William wants Cuore to focus on the best of British music, and the first half of their opening concert will feature works by Gustav Holst, Lennox Berkeley and Edward Elgar. The concert will be introduced by Freddie Fox, the orchestra’s Ambassador, whose great great grandfather Samson Fox was one of the founders of the Royal Hall in 1903.