Leader: Roderick Williams. Accompanist: Angela Foan
Roderick Williams
This is a fantastic opportunity for local, young aspiring singers, aged 16 to 21, to perform to, and be coached by, one of this country’s leading professional singers. The masterclass is one of the choir’s initiatives aimed at encouraging young singers supported by a generous legacy from a longstanding Choir member, Liz Chant.
Roderick Williams is one of the most sought after baritones of his generation. He began singing as an academical clerk, reading music, at Magdalen College, Oxford, and now performs a wide repertoire from baroque to contemporary music in the opera house, on the concert platform and in recital all around the world, which has included a performance at “The Last Night of the Proms” in 2014.
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.
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 also presents on BBC Radio 3.
Roderick Williams 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 has recently performed all three major Schubert song cycles in recital, in both German and English translation, and has taken “Winterreise” into schools around the country working on interpretations of the text with pupils.
Roddy has said “A masterclass is not a singing lesson. It is an opportunity for a student to work with a professional singer in an informal atmosphere considering the approach to a song, with a focus on conveying their interpretation of the text through performance, in front of a sympathetic audience”.
He was awarded an OBE for services to music in June 2017.