Bass-baritone William Socolof decried the words with perfect enunciation and pleasing warmth.
Boston Musical Intelligencer, Lee Eiseman
William Socolof as Don Alfonso was hilarious… and cleverly depicted his cynical character’s boisterousness.
Opera Wire, Jennifer Pyron
William Socolof’s Alfonso was creepy and brooding, matched with a dark, understated vocal tone, particularly impressive in his upper register.
Parterre Box, Callum John Blackmore
Bass-baritone William Socolof was imposing as [her] primary antagonist….
The Wall Street Journal, Heidi Waleson
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William Socolof is an award-winning operatic bass-baritone and recitalist. He has appeared as a soloist with many premier North American orchestras including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and was a winner of the 2020 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions.
The New York City native was graduated from The Juilliard School in spring 2022 with an Artist Diploma in Opera Studies and awarded The Stephen Novick Grant for Career Advancement. He then attended the prestigious Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera, and spent two seasons in the International Opera Studio of Oper Köln where his diverse range of roles included performances in productions of Un ballo in Maschera, Tosca, L’incoronazione di Poppea, Die Zauberflöte, Giulio Cesare, and La bohème.
Highlights of the 2025-26 season include concert performances of Salome with Cristian Măcelaru leading the WDR Sinfonieorchester in Cologne and on tour to Bucharest at the George Enescu International Festival, the west coast premiere at the Meany Center, Seattle, of Music for new bodies by Matthew Aucoin, with poetry by Jorie Graham and directed by the visionary Peter Sellars as a guest artist with the American Modern Opera Company, and a debut with the Sarasota Orchestra in performances of Copland’s Old American Songs conducted by David Alan Miller. The American bass-baritone makes his Saint Louis Symphony debut as the Sprecher in concert performances of Die Zauberflöte conducted by Stéphane Denève and returns to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for a role debut as the Pirate King in Gilbert and Sullivan’s swashbuckling clash of duty and destiny The Pirates of Penzance.
A member of the 2023 Verbier Festival’s Atelier Lyrique, he performed the role of Father Truelove in a concert presentation of The Rake’s Progress with the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra conducted by James Gaffigan. Additional highlights of the recent past include a debut with the National Symphony Orchestra in Bernstein’s Mass led by James Gaffigan, Vaughan Williams’ Sir John in Love with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra at the Bard Music Festival, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, Op. 80 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Andris Nelsons, Barber’s Dover Beach, Op. 3 with the Borromeo String Quartet at Carnegie Hall, and performances with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under the auspices of The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society in collaboration with Barbara Hannigan and Richard Egarr.
Recent appearances have included a new production by Mary Birnbaum of Guys and Dolls at Opera Saratoga rolling the dice as Nathan Detroit, Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte at Juilliard in a production conducted by alumnus Nimrod David Pfeffer and directed by David Paul, as well as the role of Daniel Webster in Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a part of Project 19 – the New York Philharmonic’s multi-season initiative marking the centennial of the 19th Amendment, which guarantees women the right to vote in the United States.
During the summers of 2019, 2020, and 2021, William Socolof was a resident artist at the storied Marlboro Music Festival and performed works of Bach, Brahms, Mahler, and Schubert with pianists Jonathan Biss, Malcolm Martineau, and Mitsuko Uchida extensively. A fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival in the summer of 2018 and under the tutelage of Sanford Sylvan, Dawn Upshaw, and Stephanie Blythe, William Socolof appeared with the Boston Pops, performed Bach Cantatas conducted by John Harbison, and premiered works by Michael Gandolfi and Nico Muhly in partnership with pianist Emanuel Ax.
William Socolof has received prizes from The Naumburg Foundation, Young Concert Artists, International Auditions, Oratorio Society of New York Lynn Woodside Competition, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Laffont Competition.
He is a graduate of The Juilliard School (B.M.’18, M.M.’20, ADOS ‘22) studying with Sanford Sylvan and William Burden.
Barber, Dover Beach, Op. 3
Mozart, 'Se vuol ballare' from Le nozze di Figaro
Bach, 'Mache dich, mein Herze, rein' from Matthäus Passion
Fauré, Dans la forêt de Septembre, Op. 85, No. 1
Stravinsky, "Come Master...In Youth' from The Rake's Progress
NYC Recital Debut, Young Concert Artists
Juilliard Master Class with Gerald Finley
Contact
General Management
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Tel: 929.777.0775
Email: [email protected]