Roderick Williams OBE FGS (Opera)
Key details:
- Department:
- Music
Biography
Roderick Williams performs a wide repertoire, from baroque to contemporary music, in the opera house, on the concert platform and in recital. He won the Singer of the Year Award in the 2016 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards and was awarded the OBE for services to music in June 2017.
He works regularly with all of the major UK opera houses with roles including Papageno / Die Zauberflöte, Don Alfonso / Cosi fan tutte, the title role in Billy Budd, the title role in Il ritorno di Ulisse and has also sung world premieres of operas by, among others, David Sawer, Sally Beamish, Michael van der Aa and Robert Saxton.
Roderick Williams has sung with all the BBC orchestras, and many other ensembles including the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Philharmonia, London Sinfonietta, Manchester Camerata, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé, Britten Sinfonia, Bournemouth Symphony, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Russian National Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Academy of Ancient Music, The Sixteen, Le Concert Spirituel, Rias Kammerchor and Bach Collegium Japan. His many festival appearances include the BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh, Bath and Melbourne.
In 2015 he sang Christus in Peter Sellars’ staging of the St John Passion with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle and performed the role again with both the Berlin Philharmonic and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in 2019.
His numerous recordings include Vaughan Williams, Berkeley and Britten operas for Chandos and an extensive repertoire of English song with pianist Iain Burnside for Naxos. He is in the process of recording the three Schubert cycles with Iain Burnside for Chandos.
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 was Artistic Director of Leeds Lieder + in April 2016.
