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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Schubert: Winterreise
Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
Mélodies - Released by Chandos on 1 Feb 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Stanford: Songs of Faith, Love and Nonsense
Roderick Williams, James Way, Andrew West
Classical - Released by SOMM Recordings on 22 Jan 2021
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
The English Songs Series (Volume 18)
Classical - Released by Naxos on 27 May 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams: Kissing Her Hair
Sarah Fox, Andrew Staples, Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
Classical - Released by Albion on 18 Feb 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The English Song Series (Volume 22)
Classical - Released by Naxos on 30 Apr 2012
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sea Fever: Songs By British Composers
The BBC Concert Orchestra, Roderick Williams
Classical - Released by Dutoon on 22 Oct 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Symphonies Nos. 6 & 8, Nocturne
London Symphony Orchestra, Roderick Williams, Richard Hickox
Symphonic Music - Released by Chandos on 1 Aug 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Somervell: Maud & A Shropshire Lad
Roderick Williams, Susie Allan
Classical - Released by SOMM Recordings on 1 May 2020
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Now Comes Beauty
The BBC Concert Orchestra, Rupert Marshall-Luck, Roderick Williams, David Owen Norris, Gavin Sutherland
Classical - Released by EM Records on 27 May 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Elgar: The Fringes of the Fleet
Guildford Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Roderick Williams, Tom Higgins, Duncan Rock, Laurence Meikle, Nicholas Lester
Classical - Released by SOMM Recordings on 9 Nov 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Parry: 12 Sets of English Lyrics, Vol. 2
Roderick Williams, Sarah Fox, James Gilchrist, Andrew West
Classical - Released by SOMM Recordings on 30 Mar 2018
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Berio: Realisations
Bergen filharmoniske orkester, Michael Collins, Roderick Williams, Edward Gardner
Classical - Released by Chandos on 1 Feb 2012
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Those Blue Remembered Hills
Roderick Williams, The Bridge Quartet, Michael Dussek
Classical - Released by EM Records on 15 May 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Die Schöne Müllerin
Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
Mélodies - Released by Chandos on 1 Jul 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Kenneth Fuchs: Works for Baritone Voice & Orchestra
Classical - Released by Naxos on 5 Aug 2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Turnbull: The Songs and Part-Songs
Classical - Released by SOMM Recordings on 1 Feb 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann Kerner Lieder Op. 35, songs by Wolf, Korngold & Mahler - Wigmore Hall Live
Roderick Williams, Helmut Deutsch
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Wigmore Hall Live on 25 Sep 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bridge: Orchestral Works, Vol. 5
Richard Hickox, BBC National Orchestra Of Wales, Roderick Williams
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on 1 Sep 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The House of Life (Orchestrated by Roderick Williams): No. 1, Love-sight
Halle, Sir Mark Elder, Roderick Williams
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Halle Concerts Society on 14 Oct 2022
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Moeran: Complete Solo Songs
Roderick Williams, Geraldine McGreevy, Adrian Thompson, John Talbot, Weybridge Male Voice Choir
Mélodies - Released by Chandos on 1 May 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Harrison Birtwistle: Chamber Music
Lisa Batiashvili, Adrian Brendel, Till Fellner, Amy Freston, Roderick Williams
Classical - Released by ECM New Series on 4 Apr 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo