American baritone Leon Williams enjoys a fine reputation on several continents for
his warm, handsome voice, charismatic personality and superb musicianship. Concert
appearances include Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Honolulu Symphony; Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Florida Orchestra, Baltimore, Reading,
Alabama, Westchester, Grand Rapids, Hartford and Colorado Symphonies, National Philharmonic, and at the Berkshire Choral Festival; Britten’s War Requiem, the Mozart and Fauré Requiems and Haydn’s
Creation with the Colorado Symphony; Vaughan-Williams’ A Sea Symphony with the Portland and Illinois Symphonies
and Florida Orchestra; Fauré’s Requiem with Raymond Leppard and the Kansas City Symphony; Brahms’ Requiem
with the Alabama and Santa Barbara Symphonies; Haydn’s Il Ritorno di Tobia and Harold Farberman’s War
Cry on a Prayer Feather with the American Symphony Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center; Weill’s Lindberghflug
with Dennis Russell Davies and the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; Mahler’s Rückertlieder with
Christoph Eschenbach at Japan’s Sapporo Festival, and the composer’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and
Eighth Symphony with Leon Botstein at New York’s Bard Festival; Vaughan-Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas
Carols with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall; Mozart’s Requiem with Joseph Flummerfelt
at the Westminster Festival; Beethoven’s Mass in C at France’s Colmar Festival; and Copland’s Old
American Songs with the Warren Philharmonic. He recently opened the brand-new
concert hall in Amarillo, Texas, performing Lee Hoiby’s I Have
a Dream with James Setapen and the Amarillo Symphony and returns there in 2008-2009 for Walton's Belshazzar's Feast.
Passionately devoted
to the art of the song, Mr.Williams has performed Brahms’ Vier ernste Gesänge with Sarah Rothenberg and the Da
Camera Society of Houston (to which he returned for a special program of the music of Charles Wuorinen); an “Art of
the Spiritual” program at San Francisco’s Herbst Theater; an all-American program at Japan’s Tochigi Music
Festival and Maine’s Arcady Music Festival; and given recitals in Hartford, Pittsburgh, Princeton and throughout his
native New York City, including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall (the songs of Richard Hundley) and the 92nd
Street Y (a much-acclaimed all-Poulenc program with Michel Sénéchal and Dalton Baldwin).
He recently added
two new roles to his operatic repertoire: Anthony in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd (Toledo Opera) and Papageno in Mozart’s
Die Zauberflöte (Hawaii Opera Theatre), both meeting with unanimous critical and public acclaim. A much-in-demand Porgy and Bess principal, he sang Porgy in with Yuri Temirkanov conducting
the performance in St. Petersburg, Russia;
Sportin’ Life with Markand Thakar and the Duluth-Superior Symphony and Jake in the Dallas Opera production.
Mr. Williams has won top prizes in the Naumburg, Joy-in-Singing,
and Lola Wilson Hayes Competitions.
