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The English bass, William Thomas, started singing at the age of 17 with Helen Templeton. He obtained his Bachelor of Music degree (2012-2017), and his Master of Music degree in Opera (September 2017-2019; supported by Help Musicians UK and the Guildhall School) from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying under the guidance of John Evans. He competed in the Kathleen Ferrier Society Bursary Competition for Young Singers October 2014 and received the Joyce Budd 2nd Prize. He is recipient of a number of major awards, including Dick Maidment and Peggy Cooper Award (2017), Kathleen Ferrier Competition (2018), John Christie Award (2018) and Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition (2019).
Early operatic roles include Bass Quartein Malcolm Williamson's English Eccentrics with British Youth Opera, Forrester in Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen at The Guildhall school, (abridged), Calmon (cover) in Jonathan Dove’s The Little Green Swallow at the Peacock Theatre with British Youth Opera (September 2014) and Sarastro in Broadstone Opera’s production of in W.A. Mozart's The Magic Flute (April 2015). He also played the role of Usher in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury with Winterbourne Opera (February 2015). In April 2017, he joined the Garsington Chorus and covered roles in Pelléas et Mélisande and Semele.
William Thomas sang in a master-class with Peter Rose in February 2015. He has been regularly involved in many choirs including Temple Church London, St Brides Fleet Street, Royal Hospital Chelsea and Caledonian Voices. He has performed in concert at St Albans Abbey with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He performed as a soloist in Ralph Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music at the Birmingham Symphony Hall with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, which was broadcast on BBC radio 3 (January 2016). In August 2017 he sang with the Monteverdi Choir under Sir Monteverdi Choir at the BBC Proms.
William Thomas is fast making a name for himself as one of today’s most promising young singers. As a Jerwood Young Artist he sang the role of Nicholas in the British premiere of Samuel Barber's Vanessa at the Glyndebourne Festival (August 2018), he has sung Shepherd in Pelléas et Mélisande for Garsington Opera and he made his debut at the Wiener Staatsoper as Snug in Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream (October 2019). Other recent engagements have included Zweiter Priester/Zweiter Geharnischter in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte for Glyndebourne (November 2020) and Colline in La bohème at Alexandra Palace for the English National Opera (September 2020). He has also appeared at Wigmore Hall as part of Graham Johnson’s Songmakers’ Almanac and in concert with the London Symphony Orchestra under François-Xavier Roth, the Orchestre National de Lyon under Alan Gilbert, and with the Monteverdi Choir conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
William Thomas' engagements in the 2021-2022 season include Parsi in Rustomji Satyagraha, Sciarrone in Tosca (August 2021) and Colline in La bohème for the English National Opera (February 2022); Polyphemus in Acis and Galatea for the London Handel Festival and his debut for the Opéra national de Paris as Gralsritter in Parsifal (June 2022)). In concert he sings Priest/Badger/Harašta in performances of The Cunning Little Vixen with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla (November 2021), Herod in L’enfance du Christ with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich/Sir John Eliot Gardiner (November 2021) and he makes appearances at the Edinburgh Festival and BBC Proms. Future seasons see him return to Glyndebourne and the ENO and make debuts at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Théâtre des Champs Elysées; the Opéra de Rouen Normandie and Teatro alla Scala, Milan, and Seattle Opera debut (as Masetto in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni). |
