William Thomas
A recent graduate of the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, British bass William Thomas is fast making a name for himself as one of today’s most promising young singers. He is a member of the Harewood Artists programme at English National Opera and a BBC New Generation Artist 2021-2023.
As a Jerwood Young Artist, he sang the role of Nicholas in the British premiere of Samuel Barber’s Vanessa at the Glyndebourne Festival, he has sung Shepherd Pelléas et Mélisande for Garsington Opera and he made his debut at the Vienna State Opera as Snug in a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other recent engagements have included Zweiter Priester/Zweiter Geharnischter Die Zauberflöte for Glyndebourne and Colline La bohème at Alexandra Palace for the English National Opera.
Upcoming engagements include Priest/Badger/Harašta in concert performances of The Cunning Little Vixen with the CBSO/Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla; Parsi Rustomji Satyagraha, Sciarrone Tosca and Colline La bohème for the English National Opera and his debut for the Opéra national de Paris as Gralsritter Parsifal. He will also return to Glyndebourne and make debuts with the Opéra de Rouen Normandie and Teatro alla Scala, Milan.
Concert engagements have included Mozart’s Requiem at the BBC Proms with the Britten Sinfonia/David Bates; Bach’s Johannes-Passion with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique/Sir John Eliot Gardiner; Handel’s Messiah with the Orchestra of the English National Opera/Laurence Cummings; Bartok’s Cantata Profana with the London Symphony Orchestra/François-Xavier Roth and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Orchestre national de Lyon/Alan Gilbert.
He is winner of a number of major prizes, which include the Kathleen Ferrier Award and John Christie Award in 2018, and the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition in 2019.