© Copyright All RIghts Reserved William Watson 2014
Biography of William Watson, Tenor
One of the foremost Bach Evangelists in the country, tenor William Watson has been a frequent guest
of orchestras and concert organizations throughout the United States and abroad. He recently
performed the Bach Christmas Oratorio in Mexico City with the National Symphony of Mexico as well
as in New Orleans with the Louisiana Philharmonic. With Mexico’s Xalapa Symphony he performed
Christmas Oratorio as well as the Bach St. Matthew Passion Evangelist. Following Messiah with the
Monterey Symphony and a gala performance at Carnegie Hall, Mr. Watson sang the St. John
Evangelist with the Bach Society of St. Louis to great critical acclaim as well as the St. John arias at
the Boulder Bach Festival. Mr. Watson has sung the St. Matthew Evangelist with Chicago’s Music of
the Baroque, broadcast on NPR, as well as with the Bach Society of St. Louis, Buffalo Philharmonic,
Portland Symphony, Princeton University, in debut with the Noord Nederlands Orkest, and with the
Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall. St. John appearances include the symphonies of
New Jersey, Youngstown, Alabama and Kitchener-Waterloo (ON) as well as the Columbus Bach
Ensemble. Mr. Watson returned to St. Louis in the spring of 2012 for the St. Matthew. After a 2013
Magnificat with Chicago’s highly regarded Bach Week Festival, he returns for Bach’s solo cantata for
tenor, #55 Ich armer Mensch, in April of 2014. The spring of 2014 also saw a return to St. Louis for
the St. John Passion as well as an appearance in Mozart’s Requiem at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall with
the Symphony of Oak Park/River Forest.
William Watson - Tenor
In other concert appearances, Mr. Watson has performed a variety of repertoire, including recently Haydn’s Creation with the Florida West Coast Symphony
in Sarasota, and also Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Sacramento Choral Society and the Apollo Chorus of Chicago, Vorisek’s Mass in B-flat in Prague with
the Czech National Symphony (recorded by Cedille Records), Vaughan Williams’ Hodie with the Dayton Philharmonic, Lelio by Berlioz with the Oregon
Symphony, Rachmaninoff’s The Bells with the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, Brahms’ Rinaldo with the Youngstown Symphony, and Britten’s Spring
Symphony with the Nashville Symphony.
Appearances with major orchestras and conductors include Carmina Burana and Mozart’s Cm Mass with the Cincinnati Symphony and Jesus Lopez-
Cobos, Leonard Slatkin with the St. Louis Symphony in Schubert’s Mass in G, St. Matthew arias with Lukas Foss and the Milwaukee Symphony, Schubert
masses with Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony, and Messiah with the Rochester Philharmonic and Mark Elder. Mr. Watson performed with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Sir Georg Solti in the St. Matthew Passion, recorded on London Records. Other orchestras include those in Louisiana,
Wichita, Jacksonville, Fort Wayne, Monterey, South Bend, Evansville, Aachen (Germany), and New York’s Orchestra of St. Luke’s, with which Mr. Watson
made his Carnegie Hall debut.
IIn his native Chicago, Mr. Watson, in a long association with Music of the Baroque, has performed all the major works of Bach plus several cantatas; most
of the major oratorios of Handel plus his operas, Alcina and Semele; many works of Purcell; the Vespers of 1610 by Monteverdi plus his operas, Orfeo,
Poppea, and Ulisse; and several works of Mozart and Haydn. Also in Chicago, at the Grant Park Music Festival, Mr. Watson has performed Bruckner’s Te
Deum with Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Mozart’s Requiem with Christoff Perrick, Carmina Burana with Leonard Slatkin, and also Davidde Penitente by Mozart, the
Beethoven Choral Fantasy, and the Rachmaninoff Vespers.
Among other concert organizations with which Mr. Watson has performed are included the Albany Pro Musica, Bach Aria Group, Baltimore Choral Arts, Bel
Canto Chorus (Milwaukee), Bethlehem Bach Choir, Boston Baroque, Carmel Bach Society, Columbus Bach Ensemble, University Music Society of Ann
Arbor, Pro Arte Chorale (NJ), Vancouver Chamber Choir, Les Violons du Roy (Quebec), Virginia Consort, and the Winter Park Bach Festival (FL).
In opera, after apprenticing for two summers at Central City Opera where he performed Nemorino in Elixir and Ramiro in Cenerentola, Mr. Watson has sung
at Lyric Opera of Chicago in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, conducted by George Manahan, Strauss’ Capriccio, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, Lady MacBeth
of Mtsensk by Shostokovich, conducted by Bruno Bartoletti, and created the role of President Van Buren in the world premiere production of Amistad by
Anthony Davis, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. With Cleveland Opera Mr. Watson has performed Jaquino in Fidelio, Pedrillo in Abduction, and David
in Meistersinger. He has sung several times with Chicago Opera Theater, from his debut as Tonio in Daughter of the Regiment to Pedrolino in Mozart’s
Jewel Box as well as in the critically acclaimed productions of Philip Glass’ Akhnaten (Amon), directed by Tony award winner Mary Zimmerman, and
Monteverdi’s Orfeo (Apollo), a production subsequently chosen to take part in the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Monteverdi opera festival. He performed
Eumete in Monteverdi’s Ulisse for Boston Baroque and, on very short notice, jumped into Philip Glass’ opera, In the Penal Colony, singing the main role of
the Visitor at the Court Theater at the University of Chicago. Mr. Watson has sung leading roles with Palm Beach Opera, Texas Opera Theater,
Pennsylvania Opera Theater, Chamber Opera Chicago, and spent two seasons at the Aachen Stadttheater in Germany, appearing in Idomeneo (Idamante),
Verkaufte Braut (Wenzel), and as Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte. He also sang Cosi at the San Sebastian Festival in Spain, Cenerentola at the Europera
Festival in France, and L’Elisir d’amore at the Klagenfurt Stadttheater in Austria.
On recordings, in addition to the previously mentioned St. Matthew with the Chicago Symphony and Solti on London as well as the Vorisek mass with the
Czech National Symphony on Cedille Records, Mr. Watson also appears on Newport Classics CD Where’re You Walk (English Handel arias), performing
the title aria, and on the recently released recording of the opera Amistad, on which he created the role of President Martin Van Buren, on New World
Records