Honored with the “Outstanding First Year Apprentice Award” in 2025 by the Santa Fe Opera, American bass Alan Williams is establishing himself as one of the most exciting young artists in the field of opera. During the 2025-26 season, he makes debuts with the Pittsburgh Opera as Colline in La Bohème with Music Director Antony Walker on the podium; American Symphony Orchestra as bass soloist in Bristow’s Niagara Symphony led by Leon Botstein at Carnegie Hall; and New York Philharmonic joining Eugene Rogers’ Exigence Vocal Ensemble to sing Saariaho’s Oltra mar with composer and conductor Thomas Adès on the podium at David Geffen Hall. Mr. Williams makes returns to the Metropolitan Opera to cover the role of Aldeano 3 in El último sueño de Frida y Diego with a production by Deborah Colker under the baton of Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Des Moines Metro Opera to take on the role of Angelotti in Puccini’s timeless masterpiece Tosca under the baton of David Neely.
Last season, he joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera to cover Judge Advocate General in the New York-premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s groundbreaking new opera Grounded, directed by Michael Mayer and conducted by Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin; was also a soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Dream Orchestra at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles led by Daniel Suk; debuted with New York Festival of Song for performances My Brother’s Keeper, a newly conceived evening celebrating Black men in America through art song, soul, gospel and opera with Steven Blier at the piano and fellow singers Will Liverman, Joshua Blue, Justin Austin, and more; participated in the Crossing the Line Festival at National Sawdust for a workshop of Richard Strauss’s Salome where he sang both Cappadocian and Second Soldier; joined the Orchestra of the Triangle to sing Tío Sarvaor in Manuel de Falla’s La Vida Breve under the baton of Niccolo Muti; joined Berkshire Opera Festival for their annual spring recital featuring a program of arias, ensembles, and songs in Great Barrington, Massachusetts; and joined The Santa Fe Opera as an apprentice where he covered the role so Colline in La bohème and Sparafucile in Rigoletto with maestros Iván López Reynoso and Carlo Montanaro respectively.
Previously, Mr. Williams returned to the Des Moines Metro Opera in the summer of 2024 to sing First Soldier in Salome under the baton of David Neely and directed by Alison Pogorelc as well as Un Médecin in Pelléas & Mélisande with Derrick Inouye on the podium and Chas Rader-Shieber taking on directing duties. He appeared with Aspen Music Festival in the summer of 2023 as the Voice of the Oracle (Neptune) in Idomeneo led by Robert Spano with stage direction by Francesca Zambello as well as covering the role of General Benjamin in Jimmy López’s Bel Canto conducted by George Manahan and staged by Kevin Newbury. In 2022, he joined the Des Moines Metro Opera as a member of the Frank R. Brownell III Apprentice Program where he sang the role of Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream conducted by Elizabeth Askren with stage direction by Chas Rader-Shieber and covering legendary Simon Estes’ final operatic performance as the role of the Lawyer in Porgy and Bess with the artistic team of conductor Michael Ellis Ingram and director Tazewell Thompson.
As a two-year member of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program with the Los Angeles Opera, he performed Abe in Omar (2022, debut); soloist in Frankenstein with Live Orchestra (2022); Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia (2023); Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro(2023); Jethro / Voice of God 2 in Moses (2023); Montano in Otello (2023); Masetto in Don Giovanni (2023); Third Villager in El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego (2023); Sheriff in Highway 1, USA (2024); Doctor Grenvil in La Traviata (2024); and Mandarin in Turandot (2024); collaborating with conductors James Conlon, Lina Gonzalez-Granados, Kazem Abdullah, Louis Lohraseb, and stage directors Kaneza Schaal, James Gray, Eli Villanueva, Joel Ivany, Kasper Holten, Brian Chapman, Lorena Maza, Darko Tresnjak, Shawna Lucey, Greg Eldridge, and Garnett Bruce.
Mr. Williams was a finalist in the George & Nora London Foundation Competition earlier this year. He placed 2nd in The Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition in 2024. He was named the 2021 winner of the Graduate Concerto Competition at the University of Michigan. Also during his M.M. studies at Michigan, he was selected as a national finalist in the 2019 National Association of Negro Musicians convention. In his undergraduate studies at Northern Arizona University, he was selected as a finalist two consecutive years in the Rocky Mountain District for MONC auditions.
Mr. Williams received his specialist and master’s degrees in voice performance from the University of Michigan under the tutelage of Daniel Washington. He received his undergraduate degree in 2018 from Northern Arizona University, where he studied with the late Dr. Judith Cloud. A native of San Bernardino, California, Mr. Williams currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.