Roderick Williams
Baritone Roderick Williams began to establish his operatic career in the mid-'90s. A Mozart specialist at first, he has developed a varied repertory and has also written a substantial body of music for chorus and piano.
Williams was born in 1965 in London. His father was of Welsh background, his mother Jamaican. He attended Oxford University as a choral scholar and then took a job as a music teacher. It was not until he was 28 that he began to study operatic singing full-time at the Guildhall School of Music in London. While a student there, he made his debut in Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia as Tarquinius, and he has continued to sing several major Britten roles regularly. Major prizes in the early '90s -- a top prize at the Great Grimsby International Singing Competition in 1992, a second prize in the 1994 Kathleen Ferrier Competition, and others -- put him on the map, and he began to land major roles, at first, especially in northern Britain. He sang the Count in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at Opera North in Leeds in 1998 and sang a series of roles, from Mozart to Puccini, at the Scottish Opera. Williams' international debut came in Israel, in Massenet's Werther, in 1998. He has since appeared in many international houses, often in concert performances of operas. He has been a fixture at the Proms concerts since the mid-'90s. In 2002, Williams made his recording debut with mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly on Voices: Volume 1, a collection of songs by Schoenberg, on the Black Box Classics label.
Williams is an accomplished recitalist, and his own choral compositions have been performed at the Barbican, Wigmore Hall, the Purcell Room, and other prestigious British venues. In 2016, he became the president of the venerable Three Choirs Festival Society, and the following year, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. In 2020, he became president of the Thames Concerts series in London. Williams has a large catalog of recordings on Naxos, Champs Hill, Signum, and other labels; in the year 2017 alone, he appeared on seven separate recordings and on six in 2021. The year 2022 saw Williams release Mirages: The Art of French Song with accompanist Roger Vignoles on the Champs Hill label, and he appeared on the fourth and final volume of a series on the Albion label devoted to the folk song settings of Ralph Vaughan Williams. By that time, he had issued some 60 recordings on which he was a featured artist, and he had credits on many others.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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The Song of Love
Roderick Williams, Kitty Whately, William Vann
Klassiek - Released by Albion on 13 aug. 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Harrison Birtwistle: Chamber Music
Lisa Batiashvili, Adrian Brendel, Till Fellner, Amy Freston, Roderick Williams
Klassiek - Released by ECM New Series on 4 apr. 2014
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sounds and Sweet Airs - A Shakespeare Songbook
Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton
Klassiek - Released by BIS on 21 jul. 2023
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Schwanengesang - Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte
Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
Liederen - Released by Chandos on 1 mei 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Howard Skempton: Chamber Works
Roderick Williams, Tim Horton, James Gilchrist, Ensemble 360
Klassiek - Released by First Hand Records on 18 okt. 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ian Venables: "The Song of the Severn" - Song Cycles and Songs
Roderick Williams, Carducci Quartet, Graham J Lloyd
Kamermuziek - Released by Signum Records on 29 jun. 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Holst: The Hymn of Jesus - Delius: Sea Drift, Cynara
Halle, Sir Mark Elder, Roderick Williams
Klassiek - Released by Halle Concerts Society on 2 sep. 2013
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Winter Journey
Roderick Williams, Christopher Glynn
Vocale muziek (wereldlijk en religieus) - Released by Signum Records on 13 apr. 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Robert & Clara Schumann: Rückert Lieder
Klassiek - Released by Stone Records on 4 nov. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sir William Walton: A Centenary Celebration
Orchestra of the Swan, Tamsin Dalley, Roderick Williams, Kevin Whately, Bruce O'Neil
Klassiek - Released by SOMM Recordings on 21 jan. 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The English Song Series (Volume 20)
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 27 jul. 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mirages: The Art of French Song
Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
Vocale muziek (wereldlijk en religieus) - Released by Champs Hill Records on 21 jan. 2022
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Songs (Arr. A. Schoenberg)
Roderick Williams, Charles Reid, Susan Platts, Attacca Quartet, Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Players, JoAnn Falletta
Kamermuziek - Released by Naxos on 14 okt. 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Willow-Wood / The Sons of Light / Toward the Unknown Region
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir, Roderick Williams, Ian Tracey, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, David Lloyd-Jones
Koormuziek - Released by Naxos on 15 nov. 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Moonstruck
Lisa Milne, Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
Vocale muziek (wereldlijk en religieus) - Released by Signum Records on 1 apr. 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Raymond Yiu: The World Was Once All Miracle (Live)
Andrew Watts, Roderick Williams
Klassiek - Released by Delphian Records on 12 feb. 2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Songs of William Busch
Roderick Williams, Diana Moore, Robin Tritschler, John Reid
Kamermuziek - Released by Lyrita on 5 aug. 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Birdsong
Roderick Williams, Andrew West
Klassiek - Released by SOMM Recordings on 16 jul. 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Severn & Somme
Klassiek - Released by SOMM Recordings on 1 jan. 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Judgment of Paris - Three Mad Songs
Sacred Oratorios - Released by Chandos on 1 apr. 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Time and Space
Mary Bevan, Roderick Williams, William Vann, Jack Liebeck
Klassiek - Released by Albion on 11 okt. 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo