Called “a voice for this historic moment” (The Washington Post), GRAMMY® Award-winning baritone Will Liverman has been praised internationally for his versatility in dramatic and comedic operatic roles and his dedication and vision as a composer, artist, and advisor helping to evolve and push the performing arts industry forward. He is co-creator of The Factotum – praised as “mic-drop fabulous good” (Opera News) – an opera inspired by Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia that premiered in a sold-out production at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2023.
At The Metropolitan Opera, Liverman made history as the first-ever Black Papageno in the 2019 production of The Magic Flute, followed by roles as Horemhab in Akhnaten and Malcolm Fleet in Nico Muhly’s Marnie. Liverman headlined The Met’s widely celebrated 2021-2022 season-opening production of Fire Shut Up In My Bones by Terence Blanchard, which won the 2023 GRAMMY® Award for Best Opera Recording, and starred in the title role of the highly-anticipated X: The Life and Times of Malcolm in the 2023-2024 season. Liverman performed in the world premieres of Kevin Puts’ The Manchurian Candidate at Minnesota Opera and Rene Orth’s 10 Days in a Madhouse at Opera Philadelphia and served as Artistic Advisor for Renée Fleming’s SongStudio at Carnegie Hall.
Liverman has been featured in performances at opera houses including English National Opera, Dutch National Opera, LA Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Washington National Opera, Seattle Opera, Atlanta Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Austin Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Virginia Opera, Kentucky Opera, Madison Opera, Utah Opera, and Wolf Trap Opera, among many others.
Recent and upcoming concert highlights include appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra, The Concertgebouw, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Lexington Philharmonic, Chicago Sinfonietta and Civic Orchestra of Chicago, American Pops Orchestra, The Washington Chorus, and performances at Carnegie Hall with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, Park Avenue Armory, The Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum; international music festivals including the BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Tanglewood, and Aspen Music Festival; and many more.
Cedille Records released Liverman’s Show Me The Way with pianist Jonathan King in March 2024 and his Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers with pianist Paul Sanchez in 2021, both of which were nominated for GRAMMY® Awards for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. In October 2023, Liverman released his first EP, The Dunbar/Moore Sessions - Volume I on Lexicon Classics. Volume II and a special edition CD vinyl release of the complete sessions are slated for release in summer 2025. His debut album, Whither Must I Wander, with pianist Jonathan King, released on Odradek Records, was named one of the Chicago Tribune’s “best classical recordings of 2020.”
Accolades include the Beverly Sills Artist Award by The Metropolitan Opera (2022), a Sphinx MPower Artist Grant (2022), Marian Anderson Vocal Award (2020), Richard Tucker Career Grant (2019), Sphinx Medal of Excellence (2019), 3Arts Award (2017), George London Award (2017), Luminarts Fellow by the Luminarts Cultural Foundation (2017, classical division), Stella Maris International Vocal Competition (2015), Gerda Lissner Charitable Fund Award (2015), and Opera Index (2015, top prize).
Liverman is an alumnus of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and was a Glimmerglass Festival Young Artist. He holds degrees from The Juilliard School (M.M.) and Wheaton College in Illinois (B.M.). Please visit www.willliverman.com for more information.