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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Music on Christmas Morning
Jocelyn Somerville, Elizabeth Limb, Roderick Williams, Martin Ford, Vasari Singers, Jeremy Backhouse
Chorwerk (für den Chor) - Erschienen bei Naxos am 13.10.2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Song of Love
Roderick Williams, Kitty Whately, William Vann
Klassik - Erschienen bei Albion am 13.08.2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Harrison Birtwistle: Chamber Music
Lisa Batiashvili, Adrian Brendel, Till Fellner, Amy Freston, Roderick Williams
Klassik - Erschienen bei ECM New Series am 04.04.2014
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sounds and Sweet Airs - A Shakespeare Songbook
Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton
Klassik - Erschienen bei BIS am 21.07.2023
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Howard Skempton: Chamber Works
Roderick Williams, Tim Horton, James Gilchrist, Ensemble 360
Klassik - Erschienen bei First Hand Records am 18.10.2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ian Venables: "The Song of the Severn" - Song Cycles and Songs
Roderick Williams, Carducci Quartet, Graham J Lloyd
Kammermusik - Erschienen bei Signum Records am 29.06.2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Holst: The Hymn of Jesus - Delius: Sea Drift, Cynara
Halle, Sir Mark Elder, Roderick Williams
Klassik - Erschienen bei Halle Concerts Society am 02.09.2013
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Schwanengesang - Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte
Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
Mélodies - Erschienen bei Chandos am 01.05.2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Robert & Clara Schumann: Rückert Lieder
Klassik - Erschienen bei Stone Records am 04.11.2016
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
Klassik - Erschienen bei SOMM Recordings am 21.01.2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The English Song Series (Volume 20)
Klassik - Erschienen bei Naxos am 27.07.2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mirages: The Art of French Song
Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
Vokalmusik (weltlich und geistlich) - Erschienen bei Champs Hill Records am 21.01.2022
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
Kammermusik - Erschienen bei Naxos am 14.10.2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Severn & Somme
Klassik - Erschienen bei SOMM Recordings am 01.01.2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 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
Chorwerk (für den Chor) - Erschienen bei Naxos am 15.11.2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Moonstruck
Lisa Milne, Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
Vokalmusik (weltlich und geistlich) - Erschienen bei Signum Records am 01.04.2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Raymond Yiu: The World Was Once All Miracle (Live)
Andrew Watts, Roderick Williams
Klassik - Erschienen bei Delphian Records am 12.02.2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Songs of William Busch
Roderick Williams, Diana Moore, Robin Tritschler, John Reid
Kammermusik - Erschienen bei Lyrita am 05.08.2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Birdsong
Roderick Williams, Andrew West
Klassik - Erschienen bei SOMM Recordings am 16.07.2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Judgment of Paris - Three Mad Songs
Geistliche Oratorien - Erschienen bei Chandos am 01.04.2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Time and Space
Mary Bevan, Roderick Williams, William Vann, Jack Liebeck
Klassik - Erschienen bei Albion am 11.10.2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo