Will Stackpole is a rapidly emerging composer of conceptually innovative music. His music has been called "lively” and “charming” by the New York Times and “a unique sound-world…with a constant sense of motion and…delicate mystery.” His works have been played across the country by many notable ensembles including the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the New Juilliard Ensemble, and the Attacca Quartet. He is also accomplished as an electric guitarist, audio engineer, and producer. Stackpole began his musical career performing in rock bands in his home state of New Hampshire and later in Hoboken, New Jersey. In college, Stackpole began writing concert music and quickly developed a unique compositional voice. He spent two years studying composition with Justin Dello Joio while working in New York as a freelance composer and orchestrator for theater, film, and television. Stackpole has since focused his efforts on creating conceptually innovative concert music.

Stackpole is adept at representing matters of the modern psyche in his pieces, which stun audiences with their kaleidoscopic colors, intensity, and depth of meaning. The composer attributes this individual style to having, “come up outside the insular structures of classical music.” He prides himself on subscribing to no specific musical movement, opting instead to build a language of his own from a varied musical toolset to serve the needs of each individual project. His piece fEED won the 2019 Rudolf Nissim Prize, and combines drum kit and symphonic orchestra to remark on the negative effects of social media by illustrating an unending scroll of information. His largest work, L’Abîme, is a chamber symphony depicting the impending rise of global sea levels. The work gradually incorporates material from Debussy’s La Mer to ever greater and more terrifying extents, at first as just an influence, then through injected quotations, and finally through warped and distorted playback of the original work. The piece premiered on the 2023 album Neon and Oak by Red Dog Ensemble released by Lexicon Classics which Stackpole also produced.

Stackpole holds a D.M.A. in Composition from the Juilliard School. He is currently a lecturer in the Music & Technology program at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ.