Will Liverman

baritone

Called “a voice for this historic moment” (Washington Post), GRAMMY Award-winning baritone Will Liverman is the recipient of the 2022 Beverly Sills Artist Award by The Metropolitan Opera and the co-creator of The Factotum – called “mic-drop fabulous good” (Opera News) – which premiered at the Lyric Opera Chicago in 2023. Described as “a gifted chameleon of a singing actor who disappears into his roles” (Opera) with a “beaming, high baritone that easily asserts” (LA Times), Liverman has been hailed by critics for his versatility in dramatic and comedic roles, as well as on concert stages in North America and internationally, and his dedication and vision as a composer, artist, and advisor helping to evolve and push the performing arts industry forward.

Following summer 2024 appearances at the BBC Proms in Britten’s War Requiem, Sibelius’s The Origin of Fire and Scriabin’s Prometheus, Poem of Fire led by Andris Nelsons at Tanglewood, and Aspen Music Festival’s Opera Benefit, Liverman reprises the iconic role of Papageno in the Metropolitan Opera’s holiday presentation of The Magic Flute, returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago as Marcello in La Bohème, and joins Dutch National Opera for another season, this time as Ned Keene in Peter Grimes. He makes his house debut during the 2024/2025 season at San Francisco Opera also portraying Marcello in Puccini’s La bohème.

Concert engagements include Kaija Saariaho’s Sombre at Carnegie Hall with the International Contemporary Ensemble; Carmina Burana with the San Francisco Symphony; London Symphony Orchestra led by Sir Antonio Pappano; works by Burleigh, Vaughan Williams, and Still at The Concertgebouw; works by Schubert, Burleigh, and Larsen with the Oxford International Song Festival; Brahms’ Requiem with the Rhode Island Philharmonic; Shawn Okpebholo’s Two Black Churches and Orff’s Carmina Burana with Oakland Symphony; a song cycle of his own compositions at National Sawdust; New York Festival of Song at Kaufman Music Center; and String Theory at the Hunter.

Last season, Liverman starred in the title role of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X at the Metropolitan Opera (“the best I’ve ever heard him”, Wall Street Journal). Anthony Davis’ groundbreaking and influential work marked the third opera by a Black composer in the company’s history, and was conducted by Kazem Abdullah in its newly revised score. In a “breakout performance” (The New York Times) opening the Met’s 2021/2022 season, Liverman headlined the widely celebrated Fire Shut Up In My Bones by Terence Blanchard, which won the 2023 GRAMMY Award for Best Opera Recording. He later reprised the role of Charles at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in a “rich leading performance” (Chicago Tribune) described as a “beautifully vocalized […] gripping portrayal” (Opera News).

In the 2023/2024 season, Liverman performed in the world premiere of Rene Orth’s 10 Days in a Madhouse at Opera Philadelphia (“mellifluous baritone and grounded stage presence”, Parterre Box) and took on the role of Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette at the Met Opera (he “lit up his scenes with a richly textured, mettlesome baritone”, The New York Times). In concert, he joined the Lexington Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, The Washington Chorus, Tanglewood, Grand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys, Nu Deco Ensemble, Experiential Orchestra, and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, plus Dayton Opera, Caramoor, Cincinnati Song Initiative, and Ithaca College for vocal recitals. He served as Artistic Advisor for Renée Fleming’s SongStudio at Carnegie Hall.

Lyric Opera of Chicago presented the world premiere of Liverman’s new opera, The Factotum, in 2023, which he starred in and composed with DJ King Rico. Inspired by Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Liverman and Rico place the story in a present-day Black barbershop on Chicago’s South Side, celebrating the strength of community and power of the human spirit in a soul opera that “offers a chameleonic pastiche of soul, funk, and classical elements that is incredibly effective” (Opera News). Houston Grand Opera, Portland Opera, and Washington National Opera are all slated to put on The Factotum in future seasons.

Cedille Records released Liverman’s Show Me The Way with pianist Jonathan King in March 2024. Hailed as a “glorious” (BBC Music) and “spellbinding” (San Francisco Classical Voice) celebration of American female composers from 20th-century trailblazers Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, and Amy Cheney Beach to present-day composers commissioned for this program, it features guest performances by Renée Fleming, J’Nai Bridges, Nicole Cabell, Lady Jess, Tahirah Whittington, and Terry Liverman.

Cedille Records also released Liverman’s Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers with pianist Paul Sanchez in 2021, a collection of works by Damien Sneed, Henry Burleigh, H. Leslie Adams, Robert Owens, Margaret Bonds, and Thomas Kerr, plus a world premiere recording by Shawn Okpebholo and Liverman’s arrangement of Richard Fariña’s Birmingham Sunday. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical chart, and The New Yorker praised its “clarity, sensitivity, and barely contained heartbreak,” while NPR declared “velvet-voiced baritone Will Liverman is out to make the classical music canon more inclusive.” Dreams of a New Day was nominated for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album at the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards.

In October 2023, Liverman released his first EP, The Dunbar/Moore Sessions – Volume I on Lexicon Classics. The album is a collection of original art song composed by Liverman himself, both playing and singing on the recording. It includes guest performances by Lauren Snouffer, Lady Jess, and Martin Luther Clark. Liverman’s 2020 album, Whither Must I Wander, with pianist Jonathan King, released on Odradek Records, was named one of the Chicago Tribune’s “best classical recordings of 2020.”

In 2019, Liverman made history as the first-ever Black Papageno in The Metropolitan Opera’s production of The Magic Flute. Favorite roles from previous seasons include Horemhab (Akhnaten) and Malcolm Fleet (Nico Muhly’s Marnie) at the Met Opera; the title role of Pelléas et Mélisande at LA Opera; Figaro (Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Seattle, Virginia, Kentucky, Madison, and Utah Operas); Pantalone (The Love of Three Oranges, Opera Philadelphia); Raimbaud (Le Comte Ory, Seattle Opera); Sam (The Pirates of Penzance, Atlanta Opera); Andrew Hanley in the world premiere of Kevin Puts’ The Manchurian Candidate (Minnesota Opera); Zurga (Les pêcheurs de perles, Austin Opera); Silvio (Pagliacci, Opera Colorado); The Pilot (The Little Prince, Tulsa Opera); Foreman at the Mill (Jenůfa, Santa Fe Opera); Tarquinius (The Rape of Lucretia), Beaumarchais (The Ghosts of Versailles), and Schubert’s Die Winterreise with Wolf Trap Opera; The Reverend (Jeanine Tesori’s Blue, Dutch National Opera); the title role of Porgy and Bess (Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal); and Dizzy Gillespie (Charlie Parker’s Yardbird, Opera Philadelphia, English National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Madison Opera, Apollo Theater).

Liverman has also been featured in performances at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Aspen Music Festival, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, Park Avenue Armory, the Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum, Brooklyn Art Song Society, Seattle Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, American Pops Orchestra, Art Bath, Sparks & Wiry Cries, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Chamber Music Northwest, and Friends of Chamber Music.

Accolades include a Sphinx MPower Artist Grant (2022), Marian Anderson Vocal Award (2020), Richard Tucker Career Grant (2019), Sphinx Medal of Excellence (2019), 3Arts Award (2017), George London Award (2017), Luminarts Fellow by the Luminarts Cultural Foundation (2017, classical division), Stella Maris International Vocal Competition (2015), Gerda Lissner Charitable Fund Award (2015), and Opera Index (2015, top prize).

Liverman is an alumnus of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and was a Glimmerglass Festival Young Artist. He holds degrees from The Juilliard School (M.M.) and Wheaton College in Illinois (B.M.).