Willem Peek is a singer and cultural historian. As a Ph.D. student in Historical Musicology and Presidential Scholar at Harvard University, he is interested in early modern connections between music, art, knowledge, and culture. He is pursuing a secondary field in Medieval Studies. He holds B.A. degrees in Philosophy and Art History from the University of Amsterdam, and an M.A. in Cultural, Intellectual, and Visual History from The Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study (University of London).

He received his vocal training at the Cathedral Choir School Utrecht in the Netherlands. With the Pulse Ensemble, he has created programs and (co-)directed performances at venues and festivals including Utrecht Early Music Festival, Pieśń Naszych Korzeni, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. In 2026, they reached the semi-finals of the International Van Wassenaer Competition at the Utrecht Early Music Festival. He is the current Artistic Director of Stichting Hadewijch, which supports the ensemble. He is a returning singer with Vox Medicea in the Sacred Music Programme of the New Generation Foundation in Florence, and occasionally performs with other groups across Europe and the U.S.A. In 2026, he founded ydraulis, an ensemble and workshop for medieval and Renaissance music performed from historical notation.

Willem is currently preparing his first publications on Athanasius Kircher and magnetism, on early modern tarantism in Apulia, on musica reservata, and on a fragment from a noted breviary held at Harvard’s Houghton Library. His work, research, and performances have been generously supported by numerous institutions and funding bodies, including Harvard University, Sapienza University of Rome, the School of Advanced Study in London, Fondation Royaumont, the VSBfonds, Fonds Podiumkunsten (Performing Arts Fund NL), NL Talentenfonds, and the Netherland-America Foundation. Willem has held research affiliations with the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome (2025) and with the Istituto Italiano per gli studi storici in Naples (2026), next to having served as 2026 International Ph.D. Fellow of the Netherlands Interuniversity Institute for Art History (NIKI) in Florence.