Roderick Williams is one of the most sought after baritones of his generation and performs 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 has sung world premieres of operas by, among others, David Sawer, Sally Beamish, Michael van der Aa, Robert Saxton and Alexander Knaifel.
Roderick Williams has performed 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, New York 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, Bath, Aldeburgh and Melbourne.
Recent and future opera engagements include Oronte in Charpentier’s Medée, Don Alfonso / Cosi fan Tutte, Pollux / Castor and Pollux, Sharpless / Madame Butterfly and baritone soloist in the new production of Britten’s War Requiem all for English National Opera, Toby Kramer in Van der Aa’s Sunken Garden in the Netherlands , Lyon and London, Van der Aa’s After Life at Melbourne State Theatre, Sharpless for the Nederlandse Reisopera, the title roles of Eugene Onegin for Garsington Opera and Billy Budd for Opera North, and Papageno / Die Zauberflöte for the Royal Opera House. Recent and future concert engagements include concerts with the Rias Kammerchor, Seoul Philharmonic, Gabrieli Consort, London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Music of the Baroque Chicago, New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Virginia Arts Festival, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Proms, Bayerische Rundfunk, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
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, Concertgebouw, the Musikverein, Vienna and appears regularly on Radio 3 both as a performer and a presenter. In 2017/18 he performed all three Schubert Cycles at the Wigmore Hall.
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. Future recording plans include the three Schubert cycles 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 and he is currently ‘singer-in-residence’ for Music in the Round in Sheffield, presenting concerts and leading on dynamic and innovative learning and participation projects that introduce amateur singers, young and old, to performing classical song repertoire. He was awarded an OBE for services to music in June 2017.
