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 Read more
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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Mirages: The Art of French Song
Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Champs Hill Records on 21 Jan 2022
This is one of the most delightful programmes by the baritone Roderick Williams and pianist Roger Vignoles. Wanting to go beyond presenting only the m ...
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Ralph Vaughan Williams: Folk Songs, Vol. 3
Classical - Released by Albion on 17 Sep 2021
This is the third in a series of four albums recording all 81 of the folk songs in English that Ralph Vaughan Williams arranged for voice and piano or ...
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Folk Songs, Vol. 1
Classical - Released by Albion on 23 Oct 2020
This is the first in a series of four albums recording all 80 of the folk songs in English that Ralph Vaughan Williams arranged for voice and piano or ...
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Winter Journey
Roderick Williams, Christopher Glynn
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Signum Records on 13 Apr 2018
Most performances of Franz Schubert's song cycle Winterreise are presented in the original German language of Wilhelm Müller's poems, so this version ...
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Ian Venables: "The Song of the Severn" - Song Cycles and Songs
Roderick Williams, Carducci Quartet, Graham J Lloyd
Chamber Music - Released by Signum Records on 29 Jun 2015
It is not yet clear that what music of the 21st century needs is a full-on revival of the English pastoral style, but that, amazingly enough, is what ...
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The English Song Series (Volume 20)
Classical - Released by Naxos on 27 Jul 2010
George Butterworth came of age just before World War I and was a friend and creative associate of Ralph Vaughan Williams. He was killed by a German sn ...
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The Judgment of Paris - Three Mad Songs
Sacred Oratorios - Released by Chandos on 1 Apr 2009
Diapason découverteRévérence de l'Avant-Scène OpéraEngland was really slow to embrace operas that had singing from start to finish; some attendees were mostly interested in seeing the plays and not too ...
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The English Song Series (Volume 22)
Classical - Released by Naxos on 30 Apr 2012
Hi-Res Audio24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kenneth Fuchs: Works for Baritone Voice & Orchestra
Classical - Released by Naxos on 5 Aug 2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams: Discoveries
Roderick Williams, Jennifer Johnston, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins
Classical - Released by Albion on 30 Sep 2016
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Schubert: Schwanengesang - Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte
Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
Mélodies - Released by Chandos on 1 May 2020
Although only twelve years separate the composition of Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte and Schubert’s Schwanengesang, the ethos and soun ...
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Mahler: Songs (Arr. A. Schoenberg)
Roderick Williams, Charles Reid, Susan Platts, Attacca Quartet, Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Players, JoAnn Falletta
Chamber Music - Released by Naxos on 14 Oct 2016
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Howard Skempton: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Roderick Williams, Christopher Yates, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Martyn Brabbins
Classical - Released by NMC Recordings on 21 Apr 2017
Gramophone Editor's ChoiceThe style of the British composer Howard Skempton was once described as "the emancipation of the consonance," with highly compact, economical works th ...
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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
Here is the second volume (of what will be a series of three) of the twelve books of English Lyrics by Hubert Parry, of songs based on the English poe ...
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Hymnus Paradisi - Sir Patrick Spens Op. 23
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released by Naxos on 4 Jun 2007
5 de Diapason16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Somervell: Maud & A Shropshire Lad
Roderick Williams, Susie Allan
Classical - Released by SOMM Recordings on 15 May 2020
His first cycle, Maud, setting 13 poems from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s dark monodrama, was first performed in 1899 at the height of a fashion for recita ...
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Brahms: Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone, Vier Ernste Gesänge
Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Signum Records on 24 Mar 2017
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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 -
Saxton: The Wandering Jew
Opera - Released by NMC Recordings on 13 Jun 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Songs of William Busch
Roderick Williams, Diana Moore, Robin Tritschler, John Reid
Chamber Music - Released by Lyrita on 5 Aug 2022
Once regularly performed by the likes of Janet Baker and Peter Pears, the songs of William Busch have been mostly forgotten. Julia Busch, William's da ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Birdsong
Roderick Williams, Andrew West
Classical - Released by SOMM Recordings on 16 Jul 2021
The recital features signature songs from the height of Romanticism by Brahms and Clara and Robert Schumann alongside a more recent quartet of sensuou ...
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo