William Coulter
| William Coulter | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1959 |
| Origin | Ridgewood, New Jersey, United States |
| Genres | Traditional Irish, folk, jazz |
| Occupation(s) | musician |
| Instruments | guitar |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Associated acts |
Brian Finnegan Barry Phillips Benjamin Verdery Orison Isle of Skye |
William Coulter is an American Celtic guitarist, performer, recording artist, and teacher. Since 1981 he has explored the world of traditional music as a soloist with ensembles including Isle of Skye, Orison, and the Coulter-Phillips Ensemble.
William Coulter was born in 1959 in Ridgewood, New Jersey, the son of a classical singer who founded the Pro Arte Chorale, a professional choral group. William's early exposure to the classical techniques of choral music influenced his own guitar work. At the age of nine, Coulter began taking piano lessons, practicing on a borrowed piano. In his teens, the piano was replaced by an electric guitar, which he practiced in his basement accompanying Neil Young records. At the age of eighteen, Coulter traded his electric guitar for a classical guitar after attending a concert by noted classical guitarist Andrés Segovia.
After graduating high school, Coulter performed with several bands. In 1980, he moved to Santa Cruz, California, where he studied classical guitar and earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California-Santa Cruz. He went on to earn a master's degree in music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Deeply interested in American folk music as well as traditional Celtic music, he went on to earn a second master's degree from the University of California-Santa Cruz in Ethnomusicology.
In 1984 Coulter met guitarist Benjamin Verdery at one of Verdery's concerts on the West Coast. Coulter was so taken by Verdery's music that he introduced himself to the guitarist after the concert. The two guitarists quickly discovered that they had much in common musically, and the two became friends. Despite living on opposite coasts of the United States, they stayed in touch. In 1990, they performed together for the first time.
In 1988, Coulter teamed up with four other San Francisco Bay instrumentalists to form an ensemble called Orison, the name taken from the Middle English word for prayer or invocaton. The group, which included William Coulter, Barry Phillips, Shelley Phillips, Steve Coulter, and Anne Cleveland, came to the project with a collective repertoire that included music from both the folk and classical traditions, as well as original compositions. Their combinations of harp, guitar, cello, oboe, English horn, flute, and percussion produced an ethereal musical signature of "poignant beauty."
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