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
Artistas semelhantes
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The Song of Love
Roderick Williams, Kitty Whately, William Vann
Classical - Lançado por Albion em 13 de ago. de 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Harrison Birtwistle: Chamber Music
Lisa Batiashvili, Adrian Brendel, Till Fellner, Amy Freston, Roderick Williams
Classical - Lançado por ECM New Series em 4 de abr. de 2014
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sounds and Sweet Airs - A Shakespeare Songbook
Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton
Classical - Lançado por BIS em 21 de jul. de 2023
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Schwanengesang - Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte
Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
Mélodies - Lançado por Chandos em 1 de mai. de 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Howard Skempton: Chamber Works
Roderick Williams, Tim Horton, James Gilchrist, Ensemble 360
Classical - Lançado por First Hand Records em 18 de out. de 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mirages: The Art of French Song
Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Lançado por Champs Hill Records em 21 de jan. de 2022
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Sir William Walton: A Centenary Celebration
Orchestra of the Swan, Tamsin Dalley, Roderick Williams, Kevin Whately, Bruce O'Neil
Classical - Lançado por SOMM Recordings em 21 de jan. de 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The English Song Series (Volume 20)
Classical - Lançado por Naxos em 27 de jul. de 2010
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Robert & Clara Schumann: Rückert Lieder
Classical - Lançado por Stone Records em 4 de nov. de 2016
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Songs (Arr. A. Schoenberg)
Roderick Williams, Charles Reid, Susan Platts, Attacca Quartet, Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Players, JoAnn Falletta
Chamber Music - Lançado por Naxos em 14 de out. de 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
Choral Music (Choirs) - Lançado por Naxos em 15 de nov. de 2005
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Raymond Yiu: The World Was Once All Miracle (Live)
Andrew Watts, Roderick Williams
Classical - Lançado por Delphian Records em 12 de fev. de 2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Songs of William Busch
Roderick Williams, Diana Moore, Robin Tritschler, John Reid
Chamber Music - Lançado por Lyrita em 5 de ago. de 2022
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Birdsong
Roderick Williams, Andrew West
Classical - Lançado por SOMM Recordings em 16 de jul. de 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Severn & Somme
Classical - Lançado por SOMM Recordings em 1 de jan. de 2006
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Judgment of Paris - Three Mad Songs
Sacred Oratorios - Lançado por Chandos em 1 de abr. de 2009
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Time and Space
Mary Bevan, Roderick Williams, William Vann, Jack Liebeck
Classical - Lançado por Albion em 11 de out. de 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Der Wanderer: Schubert Lieder
Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Lançado por Delphian Records LTD em 26 de ago. de 2016
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Hymnus Paradisi - Sir Patrick Spens Op. 23
Choral Music (Choirs) - Lançado por Naxos em 4 de jun. de 2007
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Earth and Air and Rain
Classical - Lançado por Naxos em 25 de jul. de 2006
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Celebrating English Song
Roderick Williams, Susie Allan
Classical - Lançado por SOMM Recordings em 27 de out. de 2017
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo