Will Healy (composer)


Will Healy is an American composer, pianist, and artistic director of ShoutHouse, an orchestral hip-hop collective.

Biography

Early life and education

Healy attended New York City's Loyola School. He completed his Bachelor's of Music degree from Vassar College and received the W.K. Rose Fellowship in Creative Arts and the Jean Slater Edson Prize for his chamber work "Hashima". He obtained a Master's of Music in composition at The Juilliard School where he studied with John Corigliano, Steven Stucky, and Samuel Adler and was recipient of the Richard Rodgers Scholarship.

Musical career

Healy's work has been performed at The Apollo Theater, the New York Philharmonic's Biennial series, the Aspen Music Festival, on "New Sounds" with John Schaefer and "Making Music", The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, New York City Ballet, (le) Poisson Rouge, and Midsummer's Music. In 2021, he worked with Kanye West on his album Donda as an arranger, transcriber, and director on live performances. His commissions include Copland House, the Great Lakes Chamber Festival, Novus New Music, Kyo Shin-An Arts, Robert Fleitz and Carrie Frey, Nancy Allen, and others. In 2018, Healy's work, "Kolmanskop," was presented by EarShot and the Jacksonville Symphony. He was also composer in residence at Midsummer's Music in 2021.
In 2014, Healy founded ShoutHouse, a collaborative artistic project and band made up of four composers, five rappers, three jazz soloists, and more than a dozen classical musicians. Their first full length album, "Cityscapes," was released by New Amsterdam Records in 2019.

Awards and honors

As a composer and arranger, Healy is the recipient of awards including the, a 2017 Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award, the W.K. Rose Fellowship, a JFund commission from the American Composers Forum, Musiqa's inaugural Emerging Composer Commission Program, prizes in the Juilliard and Kaleidoscope Orchestra Composition Competitions.

Selected works

Large Ensemble

Passages for singer, two emcees, instrumental soloists and wind ensembleOrbits for chorus, emcee, instrumental soloists and large ensembleFuture Caprices for string orchestraKolmanskop for large orchestra

Chamber

Root Position for piano quartetMariners for clarinet, violin, and pianoSmall Spaces for flute, vibraphone, viola, and celloMachine Learning for clarinet, violin, cello, and pianoThreats/Threads for saxophone quartetHighwire for octetSonata for Saxophone and Piano for alto saxophone and pianoSpeaking for soprano saxophone and pianoUpper West Stomp for saxophone octet Synapses for Wind Quintet for wind quintet

Instrumental Solo

Omens for solo pianoThe Wisher for solo harpPrelude for Rrita for solo pianoEtudes for Melancholy Robots for solo pianoNocturnes for Jamie for solo pianoOrbit for solo harp

Choral

Scrawl for SSAATTBB a cappellaTell Me for SSAATTBB and piano

Cityscapes (2019)

Mannahatta Hudson Drones Grand Central ANTS
  • ''Rebuild''

ShoutHouse, Music of Will Healy (2015)

The Song I Wanted to Hear Fully Mechanized Light On Lucid Dreams
  • ''Meet Halfway''