Called “a voice for this historic moment” (The Washington Post), GRAMMY® Award-winning baritone Will Liverman has been described as “a gifted chameleon of a singing actor who disappears into his roles” (Opera Magazine) with a “beaming, high baritone that easily asserts” (LA Times). Liverman has been praised internationally for his versatility in dramatic and comedic operatic roles and his dedication and vision as a composer, artist, and advisor helping to drive forward the evolution of the performing arts industry. He is co-creator of the acclaimed multi-genre soul opera The Factotum – praised as “mic-drop fabulous good” (Opera News) – which premiered in a sold-out production at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2023.
Recent and upcoming highlights include an appearance with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival, Le nozze di Figaro at Washington National Opera, Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Houston Grand Opera, Messiah with the San Francisco Symphony and Music of the Baroque, Bernstein’s Mass with Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Die Zauberflöte with St. Louis Symphony, and more. Following the 2023 release of Liverman’s first EP, The Dunbar/Moore Sessions – Volume I, Lexicon Classics will release Volume II and a special edition CD vinyl release of the complete sessions in summer 2025. The recording features performances by Liverman alongside Joshua Blue, Jacqueline Echols, Lady Jess, Mykal Kilgore, Isabel Leonard, Erin Morley, Adam Richardson, Lindsey Sharpe, and Ann Toomey.
Following summer 2024 appearances at the BBC Proms, Tanglewood, and Aspen Music Festival, Liverman’s 2024-2025 season includes his house debut at San Francisco Opera portraying Marcello in Puccini’s La bohème, a reprise of his iconic role of Papageno in the Metropolitan Opera’s holiday presentation of The Magic Flute, and returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago as Marcello in La bohème and Dutch National Opera as Ned Keene in Peter Grimes. Concert engagements included Kaija Saariaho’s Sombre at Carnegie Hall with the International Contemporary Ensemble; Carmina Burana with the San Francisco Symphony; Jenufa with The Cleveland Orchestra; performances with the London Symphony Orchestra led by Sir Antonio Pappano; works by Burleigh, Vaughan Williams, and Still in a recital 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 Liverman’s soul opera, The Factotum, in 2023, which he starred in and composed with DJ King Rico. Inspired by Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, this reimagining places 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).
In the 2023-2024 season, Liverman starred in the title role of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X at The Metropolitan Opera, inspiring The Wall Street Journal to write “[this is] the best I’ve ever heard him.” Anthony Davis’s 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. Liverman also 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 Metropolitan Opera (he “lit up his scenes with a richly textured, mettlesome baritone” – The New York Times). In concert, he joined the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Lexington Philharmonic, 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.
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 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in a “rich leading performance” (Chicago Tribune), described as a “beautifully vocalized… gripping portrayal” (Opera News).
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 featured guest performances by Renée Fleming, J’Nai Bridges, Nicole Cabell, Lady Jess, Tahirah Whittington, and Terry Liverman and was nominated for the 2025 GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.
Cedille Records also released Liverman’s 2021 album Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers with pianist Paul Sanchez, 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®. Liverman’s 2020 album, Whither Must I Wander, recorded with pianist Jonathan King and 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 the Washington, Houston, 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 (Denver).
Accolades include the Beverly Sills Artist Award by The Metropolitan Opera (2022), 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.). Please visit www.willliverman.com for more information.