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The English soprano, Nardus Williams, trained at the International Opera School of the Royal College of Music where she was the sole recipient of the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation Scholarship. Other awards and prizes include the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards First Prize and Audience Prize (2016); She was also a finalist in the 2018 Kathleen Ferrier Competition. She was a member of the Houston Opera Studio for the 2018-2019 season and she is a former Jerwood Young Artist at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. She was an English National Opera Harewood Artist between 2019 and 2022.
Before attaining professional operatic roles, Nardus Williams was working as a steward at Opera Holland Park. Fellow soprano Susan Bullock mentioned to the Holland Park management that she had taught Williams in a master-class a few days earlier. By the following season, she had commenced on the company's Young Artists Scheme. She won the Rising Talent award at the 2022 International Opera Awards and was nominated for The Times Breakthrough Award at the 2022 South Bank Sky Arts Award.
Recent highlights for Nardus Williams include Countess in W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro for Opera Holland Park (June 2021); Mimi in La Boheme for English National Opera's Drive & Live series (September 2020); Ciboulette in The Market for Love for the Glyndebourne Tour (October 2020), the world premiere of Purcell's Dido's Ghost a co-commission with the Dunedin Consort, Mahogany Opera & The Barbican (August 2021); Micaëla in Georges Bizet's Carmen at English National Opera (January-February 2020); Mimi in Puccini's La boheme (October-November 2018) and Donna Anna in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni for Houston Grand Opera; Armida in George Frideric Handel's Rinaldo (cover) and Adina in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore (cover) at Glyndbourne Festival Opera (November 2019); Governess in Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw for Garsington Opera (cover); the role of Martha in a new commission Wake by Giorgio Battistelli for Birmingham Opera Company directed by Graham Vick (March 2018); and Countess (cover) in W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro for English National Opera. Further roles have included Maggie/Marjana in the world premiere of Lewis Murphy Belongings for Glyndebourne Festival Opera (November 2017); Donna Elvira in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni for Opera Holland Park (June 2017); and Fox in Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen at the Royal College of Music. She was also invited to perform with Welsh National Opera and Nevill Holt Opera.
On the concert and recital platform, recent and upcoming highlights include recitals for Oxford Lieder, Leeds Lieder, Wigmore Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, her BBC Proms debut with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Ben Glassberg, and G.F. Handel's Messiah at King’s Place and English National Opera.
Hailed as ‘one to listen out for’ (The Guardian), and praised for her ‘superbly controlled, sensuous soprano’ (Opera Today), Nardus Williams is establishing herself as one of the most exciting British singers of her generation. A current English National Opera Harewood Artist, upcoming highlights of the 2021-2022 season include her much anticipated return to the Glyndebourne tour as Anne Trulove in Igor Stravinsky's The Rake’s Progress (October 2021), her house debut as Mimi in La Boheme for Opera Vlaanderen (December 2021-January 2022), and Fiordiligi in W.A. Mozart's Cosi fan tutte for English National Opera (March 2022). |
