Jim Williams, ensemble low baritone

Jim Williams, bass, is a versatile performer known for his powerful classical voice and his adept ability to handle multiple genres on stage. While studying at Oakwood University, Jim joined the now Grammy-nominated group, The Aeolians, under the direction of Dr. Jason Max Ferdinand. He was privileged to travel nationally and internationally with the group as a soloist and choir member and shared the stage with iconic artists including Kathleen Battle, Take 6, Richard Smallwood, and others. At Oakwood, Jim studied voice with mezzo soprano Dr. Julie Moore-Foster. As a young artist with New York Lyric Opera Theater’s summer program, he appeared as Colas from Bastien und Bastienne, and as Bartolo from Le Nozze di Figaro, and performed at the Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Opera America. In 2016 he graduated from Oakwood with a Bachelor of Music, with emphasis in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy. At the end of that year, he relocated to Maryland where he now resides. 

Jim made his Washington D.C. debut as Sarastro in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with The IN Series. He returned to the company Fall 2018 as Figaro in their production of Figaro in Four Quartets, based on Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. He joined the Washington National Opera Chorus (WNO) during the 2018-2019 season and performed with them at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Fuast and Tosca, as well as the 2019 WNO Gala. During Summer 2019, he joined the Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts (CAAPA) for their annual Men In Black: From Mozart to Motown concert as one of eight featured soloists. Later in Fall 2019, he joined Maryland Lyric Opera (MDLO) for their concert production of Cavelleria Rusticana. He rejoined WNO in the 2019-2020 season for Otello, November 2019. He rejoined MDLO January and February of 2020 for their staged production of Thaïs. 

After a nearly two-year break due to the Covid-19 pandemic shut down, Jim returned to the stage with WNO for the concert series Come Home: A Celebration of Return in November 2021. In January 2022, he joined an ensemble of WNO Cafritz Young Artists, WNO Choristers and local young artists to workshop Tony Award winning Broadway composer Jeanine Tesori’s new opera, Grounded, along with librettist and renowned playwright George Brant. The new opera is a collaborative project sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera and will be featured in upcoming seasons at both the Met and WNO. In February, after offering a recital at Washington Adventist University,  he rejoined MDLO’s chorus for a concert version of Puccini’s Turandot. In March was Mozart’s Così fan tutte at WNO, followed by WNO’s first fully staged production in the opera house since the shutdown, Bizet’s Carmen. 

Jim made his Gilbert and Sullivan debut and role debut as the Sergeant of Police with Young Victorian Theatre Company’s Pirates of Penzance in July. He then flew to Florence, Italy to participate as an emerging artist in the Bel Canto in Tuscany program where he appeared as a soloist with orchestra during concerts in Greve and Radda and worked with renowned American, Canadian, and Italian coaches, directors and teachers. After returning home, he jumped in as the Second Armored Man and covered the role of Sarastro in Washington Opera Society’s concert version of Die Zauberflöte in September. In honor of the first Bess of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Porgy and Bess, Anne Wiggins Brown, Jim performed in a series of outreach concerts along with soprano soloist Denique Isaac in collaboration with Opera Baltimore in West Baltimore. He then made his musical theater debut with Live Arts Maryland as Sky Masterson in their production of Guys and Dolls in October. In November, he was a featured artist with Maryland Opera in their staged concert, Ritorna Vincitor. 

In December Jim will return as bass soloist in local performances of Handel’s beloved Messiah, an annual tradition he cherishes. In addition to his work on stage, he currently serves as cantor, bass section leader and soloist at Christ Lutheran Church, Baltimore, MD. He has also appeared as a soloist for the National Philharmonic, the Montgomery County Executive and Council, the Baltimore-Washington Conference UMC, the Delaware-Maryland Synod ELCA, and other local and state groups and organizations. Jim has also been sought out as a music educator, a background vocalist in studio recordings, a private vocal coach and in other capacities throughout the Baltimore-Washington metro area. He currently coaches with Giovanni Reggioli, assistant conductor at Washington National Opera. He briefly studied voice with late soprano Carmen Balthrop who performed the title character in Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha to great success early in her career. Jim feels a special connection to the work through her artistry and influence and her insistence that he continue honing his craft and sharing his artistry with the world. He’s excited and honored to be joining Volcano for this special new production.