Jeffrey Williams has been hailed by Baltimore Sun, as “very likable, a winning performance sung with much confidence, phrasing everything stylishly,” by Miami Herald as possessing a “commanding, sizeable, effortless, manly baritone” and by Opera News as a “versatile, fearless performer.” He has portrayed Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Marschner’s Lord Ruthven in Der Vampyr, Lionel in the Philadelphia premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Maid of Orleans, Mozart’s Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Tchaikovsky’s Prince Yeletsky in Pique Dame, Rachmaninoff’s Aleko, Mozart’s Figaro, many of Gilbert & Sullivan’s baritones and others. Williams has been a Nashville Opera Mary Ragland Young Artist and a Seagle Music Colony Young Artist. Williams is a frequent soloist in the diverse oratorio and concert works of Adams, Bach, Barber, Brahms, Fauré, Handel, Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Vaughan Williams and others. He has taken part in the Russian Opera Workshop at the Academy of Vocal Arts, Middlebury College’s Deutsch für Sänger Programm, and the John Duffy Composers Institute in conjunction with the Virginia Arts Festival in Norfolk, Virginia premiering operatic works of living composers. He appears on two world-premiere recordings, both with Albany Records, Thomas Sleeper’s series of mini-operas Einstein’s Inconsistency and Michael Dellaira’s The Death of Webern, with the latter being recognized as a Critic’s Choice and one of the Five Best New Works of 2016 by Opera News.
Williams has received numerous awards including an Arleen Auger Memorial Fund Study Grant, the Cynthia Vernardakis Award at the Orpheus National Voice Competition, a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Mid-South Regional Finalist, the Baltimore Music Club Prize in Performance, and the George Castelle Award in Voice. He is currently the Mid-South Regional Governor of National Opera Association (NOA), on the Executive Board of the Tennessee Chapter of National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), and a member of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA). He has been inducted into the Pi Kappa Lambda, Phi Kappa Phi, and Omicron Delta Kappa honor societies.
Williams received his D.M.A. in Vocal Pedagogy and Performance from the University of Miami, Frost School of Music, M.M. in Voice Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University, and B.A. in Music from Muhlenberg College. Williams has taken on additional studies at the Sachrang Akademie in Sachrang, Germany, the Académie Musicale de Villecroze in Villecroze, France, the Salzburg Mozarteum Sommerakademie in Salzburg, Austria, SongFest’s Professional Development Program at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, California, and the 2017 NATS Intern Program in Toronto, Canada. He considers himself fortunate to have worked with some of the world’s finest teachers/singers – Tom Krause, Helen Donath, John Shirley-Quirk, Sherrill Milnes, William Stone, Kenneth Bozeman, François Le Roux, and others.
Williams maintains an active performance schedule. In the 2017-2018 season, he will perform with the Nashville Opera, Nashville Public Radio – Live in Studio C, Gateway Chamber Orchestra, Bach in Baltimore, and in other featured concert and recital performances throughout the country.
