Will Liverman

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), Will 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. The performances of Handel's Messiah on November 30 & December 1 mark his debut with Music of the Baroque.

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 Fir_e led by Andris Nelsons at Tanglewood, and Aspen Music Festival’s Opera Benefit, Will 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.

Lyric Opera of Chicago presented the world premiere of Will 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, Will 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

Recording projects include Will Liverman’s Show Me The Way (Cedille Records, 2024), a celebration of American song, nominated for a GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album; Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers (Cedille Records, 2021), nominated for a GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album; The Dunbar/Moore Sessions - Volume I (Lexicon Classics, 2023), a collection of original art song composed, played, and sung by Will Liverman himself; and Whither Must I Wander (Odradek Records, 2020), named one of the Chicago Tribune’s “best classical recordings of 2020.”

Will 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.). www.willliverman.com.