American composer William Penn (born 1943) graduated from Buffalo University in 1967 where he studied Northern Renaissance music, Theater Music with Maurizio Kagel and serialism with Belgian composer Henri Pousseur. He has worked as a studio musician in New York City, pianist, composer, arranger, as a university teacher, and as producer for Arizona University Recordings. Penn is the recipient of over twenty-five ASCAP music composition awards in both "serious" and "pop" categories, two ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards, as well as various National Endowment for the Arts & Meet the Composer awards.