Roderick
Williams is an exceptionally versatile artist whose intelligent musicality
is admired in music from Monteverdi to Maxwell Davies. He has become a familiar
and commanding presence on the operatic stage and has made something of a
speciality of opera in concert. His burnished and flexible baritone is equally
in demand for recitals and oratorio.
Born in North London, he took the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music, garnering honours including second prize in the Kathleen Ferrier singing competition and the Lili Boulanger Memorial award. Important professional relationships were established right at the start of his career, including those with Opera North and Scottish Opera, which have continued to flourish.
For Opera North he has recently sung many of the great baritone roles in Mozart - Guglielmo in a new production of Così fan tutte, the title role in Don Giovanni and the Count in The Marriage of Figaro - as well as Figaro in Rossini's The Barber of Seville. For Scottish Opera he has sung Marcello in Puccini's La Bohème and Lord Byron in the world premiere of Sally Beamish's Monster. Most recently he performed Ned Keene in Peter Grimes (Opera North). Other notable world premieres include David Sawer's From Morning to Midnight and Martin Butler's A Better Place, both for English National Opera, and his debut with Netherlands Opera in Alexander Knaifel's Alice in Wonderland and Michel van der Aa's After Life (Netherlands Opera). Forthcoming highlights include Handel's L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (Opéra National de Paris, with William Christie) and Papageno in The Magic Flute (Opera North). Among Roderick Williams' many performances of opera in concert are recent appearances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Tippett's The Knot Garden (Barbican) and an acclaimed performance of Birtwistle's The Second Mrs Kong (Royal Festival Hall). Also for the BBC he has sung the role of Eddie in Mark-Anthony Turnage's Greek. He has taken major roles in conductor Richard Hickox's semi-staged performances of opera, including Britten's Gloriana (Aldeburgh, 2003), Walton's Troilus and Cressida and most of the Vaughan Williams operas. Apart from English operas, his concert performances include Henze, Strauss, Stravinsky and Wagner (Donner in Das Rheingold for ENO). Plans include Billy Budd with the London Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding, and Pilgrim in Vaughan Williams' The Pilgrim's Progress with the Philharmonia.
Roderick Williams has sung concert repertoire with all the BBC orchestras, and many other ensembles including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Russian National Orchestra, Academy of Ancient Music, and Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. Recent successes include Britten's War Requiem with the Philharmonia, Elgar's Dream of Gerontius in Toulouse, Tippett's The Vision of St Augustine with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the 2005 BBC Proms, Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and the world premiere of Birtwistle's The Ring Dance of the Nazarene with VARA Radio (repeated at the BBC Proms).
He is also an accomplished recital artist, who can be heard at Wigmore Hall, at many festivals, and on Radio 3, where he has appeared on Iain Burnside's Voices programme. Recital plans this season include re-invitations to the Cheltenham and Aldeburgh Festivals. His numerous recordings include Vaughan Williams' The Pilgrim's Progress, Sir John in Love and The Poisoned Kiss, and Britten's Peter Grimes, Billy Budd and Albert Herring (all for Chandos). For Philips he has taken part in Verdi's Don Carlos conducted by Bernard Haitink. His most recent releases are Lennox Berkeley's A Dinner Engagement and Ruth for Chandos, a premiere recording of Vaughan Williams' Willow Wood with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and two discs of English song (Finzi and Vaughan Williams) with pianist Iain Burnside for Naxos.
He is also an accomplished recital artist, who can be heard at Wigmore Hall, at many festivals, and on Radio 3, where he has appeared on Iain Burnside's Voices programme. Recital plans this season include re-invitations to the Cheltenham and Aldeburgh Festivals. His numerous recordings include Vaughan Williams' The Pilgrim's Progress, Sir John in Love and The Poisoned Kiss, and Britten's Peter Grimes, Billy Budd and Albert Herring (all for Chandos). For Philips he has taken part in Verdi's Don Carlos conducted by Bernard Haitink. His most recent releases are Lennox Berkeley's A Dinner Engagement and Ruth for Chandos, a premiere recording of Vaughan Williams' Willow Wood with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and two discs of English song (Finzi and Vaughan Williams) with pianist Iain Burnside for Naxos.
Susie Allen
Susie Allan studied as a scholar at Worcester College, Oxford, and specialized
in accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. PrizesSusie Allan
studied as a scholar at Worcester College, Oxford, and specialized in
accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Prizes
include Accompanist of the Year (1993), the Gerald Moore Award (1994). She also
received a Special Mention in the 1997 Wigmore International Song Competition
and in 1999 she was awarded a scholarship from the Geoffrey Parsons Memorial
Fund.
Susie is best-known for her work as a vocal accompanist and has partnered established singers such as William Dazeley, Susan Gritton, Thomas Randle, Nathan Berg, Gwynne Hughes-Jones, Roderick Williams, Garry Magee and Stefan Loges. At the Wigmore Hall she has played for Catrin Wyn-Davies (broadcast by BBC Wales), Roderick Williams and William Purefoy. Abroad she has given recitals at the Theatre du Chatelet (Nathan Berg) and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival (Die Schone Mullerin with William Dazeley). In Britain she has performed at most of the major recital venues and many festivals including the Three Choirs, Covent Garden, Harrogate, Spitalfields, Aldeburgh,and Mananan festivals..She performs frequently in Scotland where she opened the first Highlands and Islands Festival in Inverness with a recital of Burns’ songs with soprano Janis Kelly.
Susie appears regularly on Radio Three, especially the programme ‘Voices’. She has broadcast with Ruth Peel (Brahms), Turid Moberg (settings of Heine), Emma Bell (an all-English programme) and Suzannah Clarke. For television she accompanied Christopher Maltman and Claron McFaddon in ‘Schubert Shorts’ (Channel Four, Schubert Anniversary).
Recent engagements include a recital at the Royal Opera House with mezzo-soprano Tove Dahlberg, a recital with the violinist Jethro Marsh at St. Johns Smith Square, and a tour of Cosi fan tutte for which she was the musical director.
Susie moved from London to South Shropshire in 2002 and recently has appeared in recital more locally, foe example at Kidderminster Town Hall, Warwick, Bishops Castle,Gregynog, and Walcot Hall. She has also directed La Traviata from the keyboard for Opera a la Carte, and most recently recording a disc devoted mainly to songs by Ivor Gurney with the baritone Roderick Williams. Also with Roderick, she is performing a series of English song recitals throughout the UK this season.
She is a Professor of Accompaniment at the Royal College of Music in London.