William Sheller

A prominent artist of French popular music since the 1970s, William Sheller has the particularity of being one of the few singers of French chanson who has benefited from a solid background in classical music. This has influenced his repertoire with a sophisticated musical style, combining elements of classical music with chanson and symphonic rock.

Born in Paris to an American soldier and a French mother, William Desbœuf was raised in Ohio until he was 7. He then went back to France to live with his mother's parents, who worked in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Palais Garnier.

William left school at 16 to study composition with teacher Yves Margat (himself a student of Gabriel Fauré) and later harmony, fugue and counterpoint at the Paris conservatoire. He was training for the Prix de Rome but turned to pop music after hearing the Beatles. Since then, Sheller has had a successful career both as a classical composer and as a pop singer. His works often mix both genres. For example, some of his songs include carefully crafted orchestral passages (the Baroque introduction to Le nouveau monde) as well as instruments that are seldom found in pop music (such as a horn in Les miroirs dans la boue and a clarinet in Fier et fou de vous). On the other hand, his Lux aeterna is written for orchestra, choir and rock band. He has toured several times with transcriptions of his songs for voice and orchestra as well as for voice and piano quintet.

Additionally, he has also written film music (Titanic) and songs or arrangements for other artists (Dalida, Joe Dassin, Barbara... etc.).

The "Introït" from his Lux aeterna (1972) was heavily sampled for the title track from Deltron 3030 (2000), produced by Dan the Automator.

Source: Article "William Sheller" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.