Continuo Connect — Profile // Nardus Williams

Winner of the Rising Star award at the 2022 International Opera Awards, Nardus Williams has established herself as one of the most exciting and versatile young British singers of her generation. Highlights of the 2023/24 season include a return to Opéra de Rouen Normandie for concert performances of Donna Anna Don Giovanni, a return to the role of Belinda in Errollyn Wallen Dido’s Ghost with Philharmonia Baroque, her Berlin Philharmonie debut with Academy of Ancient Music, a world premiere of George Lewis’ The Comet / Poppea playing the role of Poppea, a return to the London Handel Festival singing the title role in Handel Esther, Bach St Matthew Passion with The Bach Choir, Handel Brockes Passion with the English Concert, Fauré Requiem with Toronto Symphony Orchestra, tours with Dunedin Consort, Europa Galante and Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, a return to the Wigmore Hall, and her debut album of Handel's Italian Cantatas for Linn Records with Dunedin Consort.

Last season Williams made her house debut as Helena A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Opéra de Rouen Normandie, Countess Le nozze di Figaro on the Glyndebourne tour and returned to the Glyndebourne Festival as Adina in L’elisir d’amore. On the concert stage, Nardus returned to the Wigmore Hall, continued her fond collaboration with the Dunedin Consort performing programmes of Handel, Strozzi, and Bach, Tippett A Child of Our Time with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Mozart C minor Mass at the BBC Proms with the Dunedin Consort.

Recent highlights Anne Trulove The Rake’s Progress for the Glyndebourne Tour, Fiordiligi Così fan tutte for English National Opera, Countess Le nozze di Figaro for Opera Holland Park, Ciboulette In the Market for Love for the Glyndebourne Tour, the world premiere of Dido's Ghost - a co-commission with the Dunedin Consort, Mahogany Opera & The Barbican, and Micaëla Carmen at English National Opera.

On the concert and recital platform, recent recital highlights include Oxford Lieder, Leeds Lieder, Wigmore Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, her BBC Proms debut with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, returning with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and La Nuova Musica, and Handel’s Messiah at King’s Place and English National Opera.

Nardus was a member of the Houston Opera Studio for the 2018/19 season and is a former Jerwood Young Artist at Glyndebourne and a former Harewood Artist with the English National Opera. Williams trained at the International Opera School at the Royal College of Music where she was the sole recipient of the prestigious Kiri Te Kanawa Scholarship.