Music
Willem received his vocal training at the Cathedral Choir School in Utrecht, followed by singing lessons with Jaap Dieleman, James Platt and Xenia Meijer, among others. He is a founding member of the Pulse Ensemble and a returning singer with Vox Medicea in the Sacred Music Programme of the New Generation Foundation in Florence. In 2026, he was selected for the Campus Médiéval of the Fondation Royaumont, dedicated to Gregorian chant and the early polyphony of the Notre-Dame school in Paris. His musical training and performances have been generously supported by a range of institutions and foundations, including Fonds Podiumkunsten (Performing Arts Fund NL), the Fondation Royaumont, the NL Talentenfonds and the Netherland-America Foundation. In 2026, he founded ydraulis, an ensemble and workshop for medieval and Renaissance music performed from historical notation.
ydraulis ὕδραυλις
ydraulis is an ensemble for medieval and Renaissance music performed from historical notation, founded and directed by Willem at Harvard University under the academic supervision of Professor Emeritus Thomas Forrest Kelly. Singing from facsimiles rather than modern editions – some of them reproduced from sources held at Harvard’s own Houghton Library – the group rehearses and provides music for Vespers on Wednesday evenings at St. Paul’s Church in Harvard Square, in collaboration with and sponsored by the Harvard Catholic Center and St. Paul’s Church. This project is generously supported by an NAF Cultural Grant from the Netherland-America Foundation.
Singers, experienced sight-readers, as well as interested instrumentalists are invited to join: write to willempeek@g.harvard.edu or apply via ydraulis.com.
Pulse Ensemble
The Pulse Ensemble is a vocal quartet of four childhood friends – Stijn Claerhoudt, Daan van der Schaft, Ernesto Schuddeboom and Willem Peek – who first sang together at the Cathedral Choir School Utrecht and in the Cathedral Choir of Utrecht. Founded in 2014, the ensemble specializes in music connected to the historical ‘Low Countries’, and especially in repertoire preserved in sources from Utrecht and Amsterdam. Its programs grow out of close work with manuscripts and with the historical and cultural contexts and performance practices surrounding them.
For the Pulse Ensemble, Willem loves to create programs, conduct research, and (co-)direct performances. The ensemble is supported by Stichting Hadewijch.
Each summer the four set out with little more than a tent, sleeping bags and their music books, singing in the churches, monasteries, cathedrals and streets of Europe.
Listen: Josquin, Mille regretz · For more information: pulseensemble.nl
Stichting Hadewijch
Stichting Hadewijch is a Dutch non-profit foundation that brings historical repertoires and ways of making music to life. It supports research, concerts and new works in music and art, and is the home of the Pulse Ensemble. As its Artistic Director, Willem is responsible for the foundation’s artistic course and shapes its programs and projects.
For more information: hadewijch.eu