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
Downloads
William Socolof is an award-winning operatic bass-baritone and recitalist. An artist whose repertoire spans across centuries and genre, Socolof’s career began after winning the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 2020. He has since appeared as a soloist with premier orchestras including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, WDR Symphoniker and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Kennedy Center.
Highlights of the 2026-27 season include a debut with Semperoper Dresden in a new production of Die Wunderbaren Jahre by Torsten Rasch, inspired by Rainer Kunze’s acclaimed book of the same title, which sharply criticized the East German authorities and forms historical testimony, detailing the lives of young people growing up in the GDR. Additionally he assays the role of Fenice in Handel’s rarely performed final opera, Deidamia, which arrives at Hudson Hall in a bold new production from R.B. Schlather with the acclaimed early music ensemble Ruckus.
Appearances of the 2025-26 season included a debut with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as the Pirate King in Gilbert and Sullivan’s famed tale, The Pirates of Penzance, as well as a debut with the Saint Louis Symphony as the Sprecher in concert performances of Die Zauberflöte helmed by Stéphane Denève. He joined Cristian Măcelaru and the WDR Sinfonieorchester for concert performances of Salome in Cologne and on tour to Bucharest at the George Enescu International Festival and made a debut with the Sarasota Orchestra in performances of Copland’s Old American Songs conducted by David Alan Miller. A close collaborator of conductor-composer Matthew Aucoin, Socolof gave the west coast premiere of Music for new bodies with poetry by Jorie Graham and directed by the visionary Peter Sellars as a guest artist with the American Modern Opera Company. William gave the world premiere of Aucoin’s new song cycle The Inner Core at Lincoln Center with the composer at the piano.
He 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.
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.
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 summers of 2017 and 2018, he studied with Sanford Sylvan, Dawn Upshaw, and Stephanie Blythe, 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.
Socolof is grateful to have been awarded support from the Laffont Competition, George London Foundation, Toulmin Foundation, and The Juilliard School where was awarded the Novick Career Advancement Grant upon graduation in 2022. He is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, and holds a BM, MM, and Artist Diploma in Opera Studies from Juilliard under the tutelage of William Burden and Sanford Sylvan.
Aucoin, Selections from ‘The Inner Core'
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
Bill Palant, Étude Arts
Ansonia Station,Post Office Box 230132
New York, New York 10023
Tel: 929.777.0775
Email: [email protected]