Roderick Williams
Baritone & LL 2016 Festival Director
Roderick Williams encompasses a wide repertoire, from baroque to contemporary music, in the opera house, on the concert platform and in recital.
He enjoys relationships with all the major UK opera houses and is particularly associated with the baritone roles of Mozart. He has also sung world premieres of operas by, among others, David Sawer, Sally Beamish, Michael van der Aa, Robert Saxton and Alexander Knaifel.
Roderick Williams has sung concert repertoire with all the BBC orchestras, and many other ensembles including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Philharmonia, London Sinfonietta, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé, Britten Sinfonia, Bournemouth Symphony and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Abroad he has worked with the Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Russian National Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and Bach Collegium Japan amongst others. His many festival appearances include the BBC Proms (including the Last Night in 2014), Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh and Melbourne.
Recent opera engagements include Oronte in Charpentier’s Medée, Toby Kramer in Van der Aa’s Sunken Garden in the Netherlands , Lyon and London, Pollux /Castor and Pollux for English National Opera, Van der Aa’s After Life at Melbourne State Theatre and Sharpless in Madam Butterfly for the Nederlandse Reisopera. Future performances include the title roles of Eugene Onegin for Garsington Opera and Billy Budd for Opera North. Recent and future concert engagements include concerts with the Tonkünstler Orchester at the Musikverein, Cincinnati Symphony, Music of the Baroque Chicago, Virginia Arts Festival, BBC Proms as well as many recitals and concerts in the UK and worldwide.
He is also an accomplished recital artist who can be heard at venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, LSO St Luke’s, the Perth Concert Hall, Oxford Lieder Festival, London Song Festival, the Musikverein, Vienna and on Radio 3, where he has participated on Iain Burnside’s Voices programme.
His numerous recordings include Vaughan Williams, Berkeley and Britten operas for Chandos, Verdi’s Don Carlos (conducted by Bernard Haitink) for Philips, and an extensive repertoire of English song with pianist Iain Burnside for Naxos.
Roderick Williams is also a composer and has had works premiered at the Wigmore and Barbican Halls, the Purcell Room and live on national radio.
He will be Artistic Director of Leeds Liede in April 2016.