12 Facts About William Coulter

William Coulter is an American Celtic guitarist, performer, recording artist, and teacher.

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.

At the age of nine, William Coulter began taking piano lessons, practicing on a borrowed piano.

At the age of eighteen, William Coulter traded his electric guitar for a classical guitar after attending a concert by noted classical guitarist Andres Segovia.

William Coulter went on to earn a master's degree in music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

In 1984 William Coulter met guitarist Benjamin Verdery at one of Verdery's concerts on the West Coast.

William Coulter was so taken by Verdery's music that he introduced himself to the guitarist after the concert.

In 1988, William 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 invocation.

In 1993, William Coulter invited Verdery to play on some recording sessions of traditional and contemporary Celtic music he was working.

One of the songs, "An Daingean," was composed by William Coulter, who wrote it in honor of a coastal Irish town where his brother was married.

William Coulter's well exercised craftsmanship and his unusual ability to direct the voices of the guitar as if they were a steel-string choir make the music come to life in his hands.

In 2004, William Coulter released the album The Road Home, his first truly solo recording since he began exploring Celtic music over twenty years ago.