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Haydn’s Creation with the Colorado Symphony
“Raphael was handled brilliantly by rich-voiced baritone Leon Williams,
a regular guest at CSO concerts.”
The Rocky Mountain News
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Sweeney Todd at Toledo Opera:
”The most elevated moments fell to baritone Leon Williams who, as Anthony
Hope, stole Todd’s daughter Johanna and very nearly the show itself.”
American Record Guide
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Carmina Burana at the Berkshire Choral Festival:
“Leon Williams brought an arrestingly beautiful and timbrally adept
baritone to bear in his solo portions. Vitally involved in the visceral impact of his texts, Williams gripped his audience’s
attention, cajoling, growling or (as the drunken abbot of Cucany) bellowing vainly, and launching starry whorls of falsetto
with the sighing and sorrowing of Dies, nox et omnia.”
Union-News
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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 returned 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). Opera credits include 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 in St. Petersburg,
Russia; Sportin’ Life with Markand Thakar and the Duluth-Superior Symphony and Jake in the Dallas Opera production.
This summer (2009) he reprises Jake for his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut at the Hollywood Bowl under Bramwell Tovey and
he soon sings it for debuts with both Opera Grand Rapids and the New Orleans Opera. Other upcoming
highlights include a recital in Oklahoma City, the Verdi Requiem with David Lockington and the Modesto Symphony;
Messiah with the National Philharmonic; Carmina Burana with the Jacksonville Symphony and Mozart's Figaro
with Hawaii Opera Theatre. Mr. Williams has
won top prizes in the Naumburg, Joy-in-Singing, and Lola Wilson Hayes Competitions.
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