Douglas Williams (Bass-Baritone)

Born: USA

The American bass-baritone, Douglas Williams, studied at the New England Conservatory, Yale School of Music, and Yale Institute of Sacred Music, where he was awarded the Hugh Porter prize for his creative ambition in music. He trained as an actor with Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Douglas Williams has been praised for his “ringing conviction” (Boston Globe) and highlighted as “particularly impressive” (The New York Times) for his work in concert repertoire and early opera. As soloist he has sung Bach cantatas under Bruno Weil, David Hoose, and Helmuth Rilling, Mozart Vespers with Sir David Willcocks, Haydn with Sir Neville Marriner, Gustav Mahler with Manfred Schreier, and numerous concerts and operas lead by Stephen Stubbs and Paul O'Dette. He has performed with the Biava String Quartet, the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra, the Clarion Society of New York, Emmanuel Music, the Yale Schola Cantorum, and the Boston Early Music Festival. In his 2009 portrayal of Tempo, Nettuno, and Antinoo in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria with Pacific Operaworks, he “unfurled a bass voice of splendid solidity” (Music Web International).

In 2010 Douglas Williams will make his European solo debut with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyrique in Purcell’s King Arthur at Citë de la Musique, Paris. He can be heard on the recording of Lully’s Psychë with the Boston Early Music Festival, nominated for a Grammy for best opera recording in 2008, as well as the Yale Schola Cantorum’s recording of J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion (BWV 245) (as Jesus), called “astonishing” by Early Music Review. He is a regular collaborator with the pianists Ilya Poletaev and Ted Taylor. Currently, Douglas Williams is serving as Artist-in-Residence with the Yale Baroque Opera Project

Source: Schwalbe and Partners, Inc. (October 2009)
Contributed by Carrie Sykes - Executive Vice President, Schwalbe and Partners, Inc. (March 2010)

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

Simon Carrington

Bass

BWV 245 [Jesus]

John Gibbons

Bass

BWV 4

John Nelson

Bass

BWV 244

Links to other Sites

Schwalbe and Partners