Biographie
Bill Thorpe, born as William Thorpe, is an American singer and actor who was raised on the coast of New England where he spent most of his childhood in, on, and around the water. At the age of 14, he built his own sailboat using anything he could get his hands on. Aided by a sudden squall and a sail that was way too big for the boat, the maiden voyage ended abruptly when a huge rock raced across the bay and placed a big toothy grin in the side of the hull. Next port of call was building and designing sets for the local community theater.
Speaking roles in films include work with Clint Eastwood and Sean Penn in the Academy Award winning film "Mystic River," Jennifer Lawrence, Mel Gibson, Sissy Spacek, David O. Russell, and Larry David, as well as independent films, voiceover work for several documentaries, principal roles in eight national television commercials, and many regional radio & television commercials. He has appeared in films shown at the Sundance Film Festival, the Tribeca Film Festival, and the Independent Film Festival Boston.
As a singer (legit baritone), he has performed as soloist in thirty-two U.S. states through American Artists Management of New York and, in collaboration with the Cole Porter Musical and Literary Trusts, was soloist on the CBS Television Network broadcast celebrating the Cole Porter centennial, and for the U.S. Post Office release of the Cole Porter commemorative first-class postage stamp. He represented the United States as part of a two-night international concert sponsored by the United Nations and the Peoples' Republic of China before a sold-out audience of 36,000 in Shanghai, followed by other performances in China, including the Beijing Concert Hall. In 2012 he returned to Germany for performances in Cologne, the Rhineland, and the Westerwald, including a standing ovation in the historic Apollinariskirche at Remagen.
He recorded songs from the musicals of Cole Porter and Lerner & Loewe with the Stuttgart Symphony, sang the role of Orpheus for the National Public Radio broadcast of "Orpheus and Euridice" on "The Spider's Web" series, and has been soloist at the Bethlehem Music Festival, the Missouri River Festival, the Arizona Heritage Festivals, the Westport Levitt Pavilion Music Festival, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the White Mountain Bach Festival, as well as with Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Boston, the Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Concert Opera at Symphony Hall, the Ocean City Pops Orchestra, Boston Civic Symphony, the Marlboro Symphony, The Landmarks Orchestra and other east-coast orchestras.
Thorpe earned degrees from Boston Conservatory of Music (piano) and New England Conservatory of Music (voice), with additional studies at the Philadelphia Musical Academy (piano) and the Lichtenberg Voice Institute in Germany. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).
