Will Healy
Biography
Composer, pianist, and improviser Will Healy embraces the spirit of musical exploration, creating captivating narratives that traverse genres in his compositions. Drawing inspiration from the vibrant tapestry of New York City's music scene, Healy's pieces reflect his deep connection to collaboration and innovation. He is passionate about music both old and new, from keyboard performances of works by Baroque composers to experimentations with the artists of today.
Healy is the artistic director and founder of ShoutHouse, a collective of hip-hop, jazz, and classical musicians. Described by US poet-laureate Billy Collins as "sweetly and smartly off the rails", ShoutHouse has performed at esteemed venues including the Kennedy Center, National Sawdust, le Poisson Rouge, Verizon Hall, and Jazz at Lincoln Center, and premiered over 50 new works. Their debut full-length album, Cityscapes, came out on New Amsterdam Records, featuring "a lavishly orchestrated, absolutely unique blend of postrock, art-rock and indie classical." (New York Music Daily).
Recent compositions include "Passages", a 30-minute work for wind ensemble and multi-genre soloists, which was premiered at the CBDNA conference in Athens, Georgia in February 2023. A collaboration with poet/emcee spiritchild, "Passages" reflects on stories about language and communication, across three movements, including texts written by the featured rappers on the piece. In 2024, it received The Beeler Prize, selected from a pool of 270 compositions. The judges called it "a completely unique and massive contribution to the repertoire" and "a fresh new outlook on what band music can be".
As a pianist, Healy has performed solo recitals in the United States and abroad, including programs of original music, world premieres of pieces by other composers, and a wide variety of works from the classical repertoire. Healy has performed the works of J.S. Bach extensively, including the complete Goldberg Variations and Well-Tempered Clavier. Healy plays piano and synthesizers in Pathos Trio, an award-winning metal-influenced chamber group that has premiered dozens of new works. Healy is also a founding member of Upstream, a duo with violinist and composer George Meyer. He is the composer-in-residence for Midsummer's Music, Wisconsin's longest-running chamber music series.
Healy's composition awards include the 2023 ASCAP Leonard Bernstein Award, The American Academy of Arts and Letters' Charles Ives Scholarship, two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, Vassar College's W.K. Rose Fellowship, a J-Fund commission, and residencies at the Bogliasco, Willapa Bay AiR, and Brush Creek Foundations. Healy has written chamber and orchestral pieces for the New York Philharmonic's Bandwagon and YPC Concert series performances, including an original work for rapper and orchestra performed by the New York Philharmonic. Healy received his M.M. in Composition from The Juilliard School where his mentors included Samuel Adler, John Corigliano, and Steven Stucky. He is entering as a PhD candidate in Composition at Princeton University in Fall 2024. Healy is a Yamaha Artist and a member of ASCAP.
