Artist Biographies: Milton Williams

Narrator Virgil Thomson's "The River"

Milton Williams has received critical acclaim, internationally, for his performances. A remarkable range of abilities have made him one of a limited number of musicians to effectively interpret repertoire ranging from opera and oratorio to jazz, blues, and "new music." Williams has conducted, performed or produced some thirty-four operas, operettas and musicals, over sixty oratorios, masses and cantatas. He has also been a much sought after interpreter of contemporary work by 20th-century composers.

As a conductor, Milton Williams has served as music director and conductor of both choral and orchestral ensembles. The list includes the Solisti Singers and the Solisti Theater Arts Orchestra; the Banff Festival of Fine Arts Professional Orchestra; the Banff Festival and School of Fine Arts Choral Division (Head); the University of California, Berkeley, Faculty Men's Chorus, and the Student Division of Vocal Music (Director), also of the University of California at Berkeley. He conducted the West Coast premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass, in Berkeley, and the premiere of his own work, Espying at the Banff Festival of Fine Arts in Canada. In 1999, he was Chorus Master for the Festival's production of Leonard Bernstein's Mass. He returned during the 2000 season as CMF Chorus Master, as well as a performer in the role of "Grandpa Moss" for Aaron Copland's The Tender Land.

Williams has also made an international name for himself as a vocalist. He has performed in Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe; Canada; Bermuda and throughout the United States. He has narrated over a dozen works, including Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait, and Joseph Schwantner's New Morning for the World at Cabrillo Music Festival in 1997. His vocal studies were with Donald Stenberg, Julius Huehn, Arthur Kraft and Ethel Hardy Smith. Williams' conducting instructors were Denis de Coteau, Harold Farberman, Gerhard Samuel and Robin Laufer. He studied composition with Loren Rush, Robert Erickson and Sol Joseph. Williams' list of coaches include Darius Milhaud, Adolf Baller (lieder), William L. Dawson (African American music), and Adelaide Richie in oratorio (mother of Lionel Richie). He has performed with a wide range of talented musicians in a wide range of genres from George Walker, Della Reese, Ron Carter, George Duke, Dennis Russell Davies, Lou Harrison and many others.

Milton Williams' list of compositions include Transfigured Blues, a Masque for Total Theater; Strange Horse, for narrator, small orchestra, soprano and women's chorus; Espying, a Theater Oratorio; Hitchhiker, a film score (distributed by Time Life Films); Prelude, for full orchestra; Fanfare for a New Century, for six brass; and Orchestral Suite from Transfigured Blues. His primary compositions and arrangements have been vocal music related.