Roderick Williams

Roderick Williams is an exceptionally versatile artist whose intelligent musicality is admired in music from Monteverdi to Maxwell Davies. He has become a familiar and commanding presence on the operatic stage and has made something of a speciality of opera in concert. His burnished and flexible baritone is equally in demand for recitals and oratorio.

Born in North London, he took the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music, garnering honours including second prize in the Kathleen Ferrier singing competition and the Lili Boulanger Memorial award. Important professional relationships were established right at the start of his career, including those with Opera North and Scottish Opera, which have continued to flourish.

For Opera North he has recently sung many of the great baritone roles in Mozart - Guglielmo in a new production of Così fan tutte, the title role in Don Giovanni and the Count in The Marriage of Figaro - as well as Figaro in Rossini's The Barber of Seville. For Scottish Opera he has sung Marcello in Puccini's La Bohème and Lord Byron in the world premiere of Sally Beamish's Monster. Most recently he performed Ned Keene in Peter Grimes (Opera North). Other notable world premieres include David Sawer's From Morning to Midnight and Martin Butler's A Better Place, both for English National Opera, and his debut with Netherlands Opera in Alexander Knaifel's Alice in Wonderland and Michel van der Aa's After Life (Netherlands Opera). Forthcoming highlights include Handel's L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (Opéra National de Paris, with William Christie) and Papageno in The Magic Flute (Opera North). Among Roderick Williams' many performances of opera in concert are recent appearances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Tippett's The Knot Garden (Barbican) and an acclaimed performance of Birtwistle's The Second Mrs Kong (Royal Festival Hall). Also for the BBC he has sung the role of Eddie in Mark-Anthony Turnage's Greek. He has taken major roles in conductor Richard Hickox's semi-staged performances of opera, including Britten's Gloriana (Aldeburgh, 2003), Walton's Troilus and Cressida and most of the Vaughan Williams operas. Apart from English operas, his concert performances include Henze, Strauss, Stravinsky and Wagner (Donner in Das Rheingold for ENO). Plans include Billy Budd with the London Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding, and Pilgrim in Vaughan Williams' The Pilgrim's Progress with the Philharmonia.

Roderick Williams has sung concert repertoire with all the BBC orchestras, and many other ensembles including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Russian National Orchestra, Academy of Ancient Music, and Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. Recent successes include Britten's War Requiem with the Philharmonia, Elgar's Dream of Gerontius in Toulouse, Tippett's The Vision of St Augustine with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the 2005 BBC Proms, Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and the world premiere of Birtwistle's The Ring Dance of the Nazarene with VARA Radio (repeated at the BBC Proms).

He is also an accomplished recital artist, who can be heard at Wigmore Hall, at many festivals, and on Radio 3, where he has appeared on Iain Burnside's Voices programme. Recital plans this season include re-invitations to the Cheltenham and Aldeburgh Festivals. His numerous recordings include Vaughan Williams' The Pilgrim's Progress, Sir John in Love and The Poisoned Kiss, and Britten's Peter Grimes, Billy Budd and Albert Herring (all for Chandos). For Philips he has taken part in Verdi's Don Carlos conducted by Bernard Haitink. His most recent releases are Lennox Berkeley's A Dinner Engagement and Ruth for Chandos, a premiere recording of Vaughan Williams' Willow Wood with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and two discs of English song (Finzi and Vaughan Williams) with pianist Iain Burnside for Naxos.

He is also an accomplished recital artist, who can be heard at Wigmore Hall, at many festivals, and on Radio 3, where he has appeared on Iain Burnside's Voices programme. Recital plans this season include re-invitations to the Cheltenham and Aldeburgh Festivals. His numerous recordings include Vaughan Williams' The Pilgrim's Progress, Sir John in Love and The Poisoned Kiss, and Britten's Peter Grimes, Billy Budd and Albert Herring (all for Chandos). For Philips he has taken part in Verdi's Don Carlos conducted by Bernard Haitink. His most recent releases are Lennox Berkeley's A Dinner Engagement and Ruth for Chandos, a premiere recording of Vaughan Williams' Willow Wood with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and two discs of English song (Finzi and Vaughan Williams) with pianist Iain Burnside for Naxos.