Biography
“Joel Williams’s ‘Descend, kind pity’ was warm, mellifluous and perfectly controlled. It was his only solo moment, but we will be hearing much more from this Royal College of Music alumnus in years to come.”
“Williams has a warm, beautifully toned tenor voice and will be a singer to watch.”
Joel is represented by Sorek Artists Management | sorekartists.com
Described by Opera Magazine as a singer “with flair, his tenor simultaneously caressing and resilient”, Joel Williams is a graduate of King’s College Cambridge, and the Royal College of Music International Opera Studio, where he was the Kiri te Kanawa Scholar. He is a former member of the Verbier Festival Academy, a Britten-Pears Young Artist, a Young Artist at Opera Holland Park and an Alvarez Young Artist at Garsington Opera. Joel is the recipient of an Independent Opera Fellowship.
Between 2019 and 2021 Joel was a member of the Centre de Perfeccionament Palau de les Arts in Valencia, where he appeared as Basilio/Le nozze di Figaro, Bardolfo/Falstaff, Le Mari/Les mamelles de Tirésias, Don Luigino/Il Viaggio a Reims, Hirte and Stimme eines jungen Seemanns in Tristan und Isolde, Gernando in Manuel Garcia’s L’isola Disabitata and Beppo in Pagliacci.
Last season, he joined the Studio of Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, performing roles such as Scaramuccio/Ariadne auf Naxos, Gaston and Victorin in Die Tote Stadt, Parpignol/La Bohème, 4.Knappe/Parsifal and Nencio in Haydn’s L’infedelta delusa, in a new production by Marie-Eve Signeyrole. He also returned to the Palau de les Arts Valencia to sing Narr in a new production of Wozzeck.
In 2022-23, he will return to the Bayerische Staatsoper to reprise his roles in Ariadne auf Naxos and L’infedelta delusa, as well as appear as Vitellozzo in Lucrezia Borgia and Rooster in Cunning Little Vixen. He also returns to Valencia to give role debuts as Arnalta/Nutrice in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, sings Hirt/Seemann in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at the Grand Théâtre du Luxembourg and makes his house debut as Zotico in a new production of Cavalli’s Eliogabalo by Calixto Bieto at Opernhaus Zürich.
Elsewhere, Joel has appeared as Delfa in Alessandro Melani’s opera L’empio punito at the 2020 Innsbrucker Festwochen für Alte Musik, Le Ruisseau/Les Fêtes D’Hébé at Opéra de Bastille in Paris, Don Ottavio/Don Giovanni at Opera Holland Park, Lysander/A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Count Belfiore/La Finta Giardiniera, the title role in Offenbach’s Robinson Crusoe, Mayor/Albert Herring, Hexe/Hänsel und Gretel, Dr Blind/Die Fledermaus, all as part of the Royal College of Music International Opera Studio.
Joel made his operatic debuts as a boy treble at the Royal Opera House, English National Opera and Glyndebourne, playing Cobweb in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of Die Zauberflöte’s Drei Knaben, and peasant-child in Puccini’s Turandot. In oratorio he performed as the boy-king Joas in Handel’s Athalia with Paul McCreesh and toured with the Monteverdi Choir and Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
In concert, he has performed Stravinsky’s Renard at the Prinzregententheater Munich and Threni with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, both conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur at the Verbier Festival, conducted by Valery Gergiev, Mozart’s Requiem with the Noord Nederlands Orkest, Gerald Finzi’s Dies Natalis with EuropaMusicale Festival Strings in Munich, Verdi’s Otello (Act One) with the Cambridge University Musical Society conducted by Richard Farnes, Pärt’s Passio with the Choir of King’s College Cambridge conducted by Stephen Cleobury, Bach’s St John and St Matthew Passions with Merton College Choir, Oxford, Handel’s Messiah with Bedford Choral Society, as well as performances throughout the UK of Mozart’s Requiem and Cavalli’s Magnificat, Haydn’s Creation, Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Vivaldi’s Magnificat and Gabrieli’s In Ecclesii. As a member of the Choir of King’s College Cambridge, Joel took part in numerous international tours, recordings and radio and television broadcasts.
As recitalist he has appeared at the Oxford Lieder Festival, Leeds Lieder, the Barber Institute at Birmingham University, the Leeds University International Concert Series, the Victoria Rooms in Bristol and at Wigmore Hall, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Joel is the recipient of the Somerset Song Prize, the Sir Anthony Lewis Memorial Prize, the Sidney Sussex Lieder Competition, second prize in the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards, and third prize in the Brooks-van der Pump English Song competition and the Joan Chissell Schumann competition. He was a Pembroke Lieder Scholar with Joseph Middleton and a finalist in the 2019 Royal Overseas League Competition.
“There’s not a weak link to be heard, but woodland laurels are shared between Timothy Morgan’s rhetorical Oberon, every phrase coaxed into thoughtful musical shape, Harriet Eyley’s full-blooded Tytania and Joel Williams’s radiant Lysander, who all give the pros up the road at the Coliseum a run for their money.”
“Joel’s elegant tenor was total pleasure
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“All the cast turned in outstanding performances. All of the voices sparkled in the Britten Theatre... Special mention to Joel Williams for a well-observed and brilliantly obsequious Mr Upfold, brimming with awkward mannerisms belying a darker secret.
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“The voices complemented each other perfectly – [Edward] Grint warm and mellifluous, [Thomas] Hobbs bright and edgy – and when they were joined by Joel Williams, the tenor Evangelist, for the trial before Pilate, the variance in timbres created a sublime example of minimalist contrast.”