A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Shakespeare, William
SHAKESPEARE, William, composer, vocalist, pianist, born at Croydon June 16, 1849. At the age of 13 he was appointed organist at the church where formerly he had attracted attention in the choir. In 1862 he commenced a three years course of study of harmony and counterpoint under Molique; but after that master's death, having in 1866 gained the King's Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, continued his studies there for five years under Sir W. Sterndale Bennett. Whilst at the Royal Academy he produced and performed at the students' concerts a pianoforte sonata, a pianoforte trio, a capricio for pianoforte and orchestra, and a pianoforte concerto; and attracted some notice as a solo-player.
He was elected Mendelssohn Scholar in 1871, for composition and pianoforte-playing, and in accordance with the wish of the Committee entered the Conservatorium at Leipzig. There, whilst under the instruction of the director, Carl Reinecke, he produced and conducted in the Gewandhaus a symphony in C minor. Having discovered himself to be the possessor of a tenor voice, he was sent by the Mendelssohn Scholarship Committee to study singing with Lamperti at Milan, and there remained for two and a half years. But though singing was his chief pursuit he did not neglect composition, and while in Italy wrote two overtures, two string quartets, and other works.
In 1875 he returned to England, and entered upon the career of a concert and oratorio singer. He was appointed in 1878 Professor of Singing, and in 1880 conductor of the concerts, at theRoyal Academy of Music.
His voice, though both sweet and sympathetic in quality, is somewhat deficient in power; and his success as a singer must therefore be attributed to the purity of his vocal production and to his complete mastery of all styles of music.
His compositions, which are marked by considerable charm and elegance, show the influence of Schumann and Bennett; and in his Overture, performed at the Crystal Palace in 1874, and his Pianoforte Concerto, at the Brighton Festival of 1879, he proves himself an adept at musical form.