William Parkes began playing cello at age eight with the El Sistema Somerville program. In 2018, William joined the Boston String Academy Youth Ensemble, and has been a member since. William has performed in numerous summer music festivals including Point Counterpoint (Leicester, VT), YOLA National (Los Angeles, CA), Festival Groba (Ponteareas, Spain), and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, where he studied extensively with Boston Symphony Orchestra cellist Mihail Jojatu. William was a winner of the 2020 Longy Side by Side concerto competition. William and his colleague Bryan have previously performed the Vivaldi Double Cello Concerto in G minor with the Boston String Academy at the Shalin Liu Performance Center (Rockport, MA) in May of 2023, and again at the Hatch Memorial Shell (Boston, MA) in August of 2023. William served as principal cellist of the YOLA National Festival 2023 under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel. William is also currently a member of the Rivers Conservatory Chamber Music Lab. 

William has performed in numerous master classes with renowned cellists, including Joaquin Fernández, Jeffrey Ziegler, Mihail Jojatu, Alan Harris, Andrew Mark, Astrid Schween, Zlatomir Fung and Inbal Segev. William is currently a senior at Somerville High School and studies cello with Michal Shein. William debuts the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra later in April.