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Tenor Mark Watson Williams has garnered special praise for his “startlingly sweet” sound and energetic presence on stage. Comfortable in early music, bel canto, and contemporary works, Mark is a sought-after performer especially on the operatic stage. In Fall 2015, he made his professional operatic debut as Coridon in the Boston Early Music Festival’s revival production of Acis and Galatea.
Now in his first season as a "fest" soloist with Staatstheater Mainz, this season features Mark as Tobias in Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, John in Richard Ayres' opera Peter Pan, and First Jew in Strauss' Salome. He was previously a soloist for two seasons at Theater Münster in western Germany, and prior to that he spent three seasons with Landestheater Niederbayern in Passau, Bayern. He has also been a guest soloist with Oldenburgisches Staatstheater. Select roles from the previous three seasons in Germany include Don Ottavio, (Mozart’s Don Giovanni), Lurcanio (Handel's Ariodante), Gustav (Lehár’s Das Land des Lächelns), Egon von Wildenhagen (Künneke's Der Vetter aus Dingsda), Doctor Ecclitico (Haydn’s Die Welt auf dem Monde), Normanno (Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor), Valzacchi (Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier), Armand (Lehár’s Der Graf von Luxemburg), and Rustighello (Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia). As a Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, he presented the role of Henry Snibblesworth in the stage premiere of The Classical Style: An Opera (of Sorts) by Steven Stucky, where he “struck just the right tone…in a brilliant spoof of the Catalogue Aria.” In 2014 Mark took third prize in the American Institute of Musical Studies Meistersinger Competition in Graz, Austria, where he also received the Dorit Hanak Operetta Scholarship. In 2016 he also was a Finalist in the same Meistersinger Competition and received an Honorable Mention. Mark received his M.M. from New England Conservatory of Music, where he was conducted by Stephen Lord and directed by Joshua Major and James Robinson. Prior to that, he graduated from the University of Virginia as a Distinguished Major in Music with Highest Distinction. He currently receives vocal instruction from tenor Bradley Williams and soprano Roberta Cunningham. |