William Sharp

William Sharp, baritone (Baltimore, MD), has appeared with most major American symphony orchestras including those of New York, Chicago, Washington, Boston, Baltimore, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, most recently with the New York Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Bill has participated in Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Colorado Music Festival, and the Marlboro Music Festival. Since 1977 he has taught voice at the university level, and in 2002 joined the faculty of the Peabody Institute. He is a frequent faculty artist of the American Bach Soloists Festival and Academy in San Francisco. His extensive work in the performance of baroque and pre-baroque music also includes numerous appearances with the Bach Aria Group, the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Maryland Handel Festival. Bill has given world premiere performances and made premiere recordings of works by Leonard Bernstein, John Harbison, John Musto, Jon Deak, Libby Larson, David Del Tredici, Lori Laitman, Steven Paulus, Scott Wheeler, and David Liptak, among others. Bill’s recordings can be found on the Albany Records, Columbia Records, CRI, Koch, Newport Classics, Nonesuch, and Vox-Turnabout labels. His 1990 world premiere recording of Leonard Bernstein’s last major work, Arias and Barcarolles won a Grammy Award, and he was nominated for another in 1989 for his recording featuring the works of American composers Virgil Thomson, John Musto, and Lee Hoiby. Most recently, he made the premiere recording of Jörg Widmann’s song cycle Das heiße Herz with pianist Seth Knopp in collaboration with the composer. Previous Yellow Barn musician (since 2008)