William A. Brown was born on May 29, 1938 in Jackson, Mississippi to Albert Brown and Ida Mae Perry. Brown began singing in his local church choir at an early age and in 1949, he started more formal musical training on the trumpet and piano. His success as a trumpeter at Jim Hill High School afforded him the opportunity to attend Jackson State College on a full scholarship in 1955. However, after performing there in his first opera, Cavalleria Rusticana, Brown changed his concentration to voice, graduating in 1959 with a BME. In the fall of that same year he taught voice and served as director of the choir at Utica Junior College in Utica, Mississippi. He then enrolled at Indiana University–Bloomington in 1960 to study voice. After earning his master of music degree in 1962, Brown enlisted in the United States Navy and served as a chief petty officer and chorister for the US Navy Band, “Sea Chanters.” While Brown was in the Navy he was married to Marion Tally.      

After his discharge in 1966, he began his performing career. In 1968, Brown made his debut with the New York City Opera in Hugo Weisgall’s Nine Rivers from Jordan, and went on to become an internationally acclaimed concert, opera and recording artist known for his virtuosity and beautiful tone. He was a champion of twentieth-century music, and made an important contribution to the public appreciation of black music in 1970 when he gave recitals nationwide entitled “Black Composers Concert(s)”, which highlighted music written by black composers. He also appeared with major contemporary music ensembles, and enjoyed the honor of having compositions written especially for him. His recorded work appears on CBS Records, Nonesuch, New World, CRI among others. Brown continued to perform until late 2002 in concerts with the Boston, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Royal Philharmonic, Detroit and Capetown symphonies, as well as operatic roles with the New York City, Lake George Opera Festival, Opera Ebony, and Goldovsky opera companies, and many more. Major roles included Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, and Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Ebony Magazine listed William Brown as one of the “ten new voices of the eighties.”

In 1972 he took the position of Associate Professor of Music at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida. In 1993 he received their Distinguished Professor Award; he remained on the faculty until his untimely death in 2004. Brown also held an honorary doctorate from Bridgewater College in Massachusetts. His home state of Mississippi  proclaimed a William Brown Day in his honor.