home > countertenor profiles > ben williamson

Ben recently won First Prize in the Nei Stëmmen International Singing Competition in Luxembourg. A former choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, where he read philosophy, Ben completed his formal training at the Royal College of Music International Opera School, where he won the English Song Competition. Ben was a Retrospect Ensemble Young Artist in 2010, and is a member of the solo-voice ensemble Cries of London which won first prize in the Royal Overseas League Competition in 2011.

Roles include Bertarido (cover) in Handel's Rodelinda with Scottish Opera, Mago Christiano (cover) in Handel’s Rinaldo with Glyndebourne on Tour, Nireno (cover) in Handel’s Giulio Cesare with Opera North, Spirit in Kettlehead by Darren Bloom with Size Zero Opera, Bertarido in Handel’s Rodelinda, Mirtillo in Handel’s Il Pastor Fido and Tassile in Handel’s Alessandro in the London Handel Festival under Laurence Cummings, George Saintsbury in The Lovely Ladies by Peter Cowdrey with Opera Unlimited in the Buxton Festival, Tragedy in Stephen Oliver’s Euridice withBritish Youth Opera, the title role in Kaspar Hauser by Alexis Pope in theTête à Tête and Grimeborn Festivals, Alessandro (cover) in Handel’sTolomeo with English Touring Opera, Arsamenes in Handel’s Xerxes with Fitzwilliam Chamber Opera, Hamor in Handel’s Jephtha in the Grimeborn Festival, and various roles in Purcell’s “Orpheus Britannicus” with the Mercurius Company at the Cadogan Hall.

Concert highlights include Ben’s Wigmore Hall debut with Purcell’s The Fairy Queen under Matthew Halls, Purcell’s Hail, Bright Cecilia (State Hermitage, St. Petersburg), Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Conductus Ensemble, and Bernstein Chichester Psalms with the choir of New College, Oxford under Edward Higginbottom, and a concert of Foggitt and Julian Phillips with Cries of London at the Wigmore Hall.​

Upcoming engagements include Unulfo (cover) with English National Opera and La Virtù in Vivaldi’s La Senna Festeggiante with Ensemble Serse.

© Ben Williamson

Articles, Reviews & Websites

YouTube Videos