BENJAMIN WILLIAMSON

Photography: Rocco Redondo

BENJAMINWILLIAMSON.COM COUNTER-TENOR


Benjamin’s recent roles include Orphée in a feature length film of Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice with INseries Opera, based in Washington DC, Anführer in Toshio Hosokawa’s Erdbeben Träume with Opera Stuttgart, Seraphim 3 in John Adams’s The Gospel According to the Other Mary with Theater Bonn and Tolomeo in Handel’s Giulio Cesare with English Touring Opera. His other roles include Ottone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with Ryedale Arts, Hamor in Handel’s Jephtha with Iford Arts, and three roles in the London Handel Festival with Laurence Cummings: Bertarido in Handel’s Rodelinda, Mirtillo in Handel’s Il pastor fido and Tassile in Handel’s Alessandro. Benjamin has created roles in contemporary operas in the Buxton, Grimeborn, and Tête à Tête festivals and has understudied Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with English National Opera, Polinesso in Handel’s Ariodante with Scottish Opera, and other roles with Glyndebourne and Opera North. Benjamin won 3rd prize and Audience prize in the CantateBach Competition in Greifswald, Germany, was a semi finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, and a finalist in the Royal Overseas League Competition.

Concert engagements include Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Netherlands Bach Society (cancelled due to Covid), Handel’s Brockes Passion with Stephen Cleobury and King’s College Choir on BBC Radio 3, the world premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Arion and the Dolphin, Purcell and Leveridge with Irish Baroque Orchestra in Dublin, Purcell’s The Fairy Queen with Matthew Halls at Wigmore Hall, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with Edward Higginbottom in Italy, Purcell’s Hail, Bright Cecilia with Josef Wallnig in St Petersburg and Handel’s Messiah in Poland and Qatar.

The son of a Canadian soprano and a lutenist from New Zealand, Benjamin underwent a quintessentially English education. He was Head Chorister at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey, a Choral Scholar at King’s College, Cambridge (where he read Philosophy), and then a postgraduate student at the Royal College of Music. During his studies, Benjamin won the RCM English Song Competition and was a finalist in the overall Lies Askonas Singing Competition.

Benjamin’s recital work includes Howells and Hahn at the Chelsea Arts Club with Joseph Middleton, ‘The Art of the Countertenor’ at Cadogan Hall, Gravetye Manor and with Corfu Arts in Corfu. He is also the co-founder of Sloane Square Choral Society, as well as a singing teacher: many of his students have been awarded postgraduate places at music college.

PRESS

  • "His is the loveliest counter-tenor voice I have heard, and he acted this complex role (Bertarido/Rodelinda) with a subtlety and conviction which brought the opera to vivid dramatic life."

    The Spectator

  • "His Oberon is focused, attentive, and responsive, displaying deeply committed, high-stakes emotion that is always on the verge of something significant in combination with a seemingly contradictory combination of virility, sensitivity, and arrogance. If that’s not Oberon, I don’t know what is"

    Washington Post

  • "Countertenor Benjamin Williamson sang “Erbarme Dich” with heart-stopping beauty and intensity, with exquisitely controlled vibrato and shading"

    Bachtrack

  • "Benjamin Williamson’s Tolomeo is no one-dimensional villain but a convincingly querulous boy-King, indiscrete and injudicious, perpetually frustrated in his attempts to assert his power and fulfil his sexual desires. Williamson’s keenly focused, bright-edged countertenor captured Tolomeo’s petulance while the sweetness of tone hinted at finer qualities and emotions struggling to break through the yoke of immaturity"

    Opera Today

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