On the evening of April 19, William Anthony made history as he walked toward the grand piano positioned beside a tyrannosaurus and triceratops and played his new EP, “Dawn,” for a private audience at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles.
William is a pianist, film composer and music producer born in Bellflower, California and raised in both Long Beach, CA and Monroe, NC. A mathematical and creative person, William studied mathematics at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University while honing his skills as a pianist and composer. Those who are well-versed in music theory know that math and music are siblings, and it is this balance between the logistic left brain and the creative right brain that make William a gifted musician.
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Inspired by more types of music than he can count, William has produced records across genres including classical, electronic dance music (EDM), hip-hop/trap, R&B, and more. In 2023, he felt particularly called to create a piano-centric extended play (EP), a type of musical recording which contains more tracks than a single but fewer song than an album. When recalling this period of conceptualization, he noted “piano is a part of my identity…I wanted to do something solo and classical that could also be sampled by other artists, including hip-hop”. He began combing through hundreds of short melodies he’d recorded in order to carve out this six-song EP, Dawn (2024).
This was a highly anticipated EP for William’s fans, family, friends, and fellow artists. He knew this and decided to create a memorable release party. Most artists opt to listen to their album with friends & fans during a dinner or party setting, but William had a different vision: a live performance of Dawn at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. Nestled beside the Exposition Park Rose Garden, just over one hundred friends and family members of William walked into his serenade. Surrounded by Jurassic fossils, stone pillars and a turquoise-adorned ceiling, William played “Dawn,” from start to finish.
Tears were wept and standing ovations were offered. Each song ignited sensory stimuli that brought the attendees back to sweet moments of childhood, present moments of existential contemplation, and fast-forwarded them toward their dreams.
Of William’s closing song, “Somewhere Out There,” attendee Jalen Blot remarked, “[The song] got to me because at the end, he plays a riff from a gospel song. It was a song I heard as a kid. And, the way that he played it reminded me of a Christopher Nolan movie called ‘Interstellar.’ It felt like he was taking us on a journey through space.”
Afterwards, guests were invited to enjoy the dinosaur gallery privately. They perused through the exhibits and drew correlations between the stories of “Dawn,” and the museum’s stories of natural history.
Post-performance, William said, “I had to look away from the crowd, so I didn’t start crying. At the end of the day, it went as well as I could’ve imagined.”
He’s beginning to plan his next steps in this four-part solo piano series: “Dawn,” “Day,” “Dusk,” and “Midnight.” For “Day”, William says “I just want to go even crazier!”
His dream venues include the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and the Moon. Time will tell if music on the moon is feasible, but his performance of “Dawn,” certainly establishes William as a star guided by a celestial force far bigger than Earth.
Follow William Anthony on Instagram @wyatony
