Chrystal E. Williams’s current and upcoming engagements include Rosina in The Barber of Seville with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Aurelia Browder in She Who Dared with Chicago Opera Theatre, a return to the Metropolitan Opera for productions of Carmen and El Niño, and a world premiere by John Glover and Kelley Rourke Carnegie Hall with American Composers Orchestra.
Recent engagements include Nefertiti in Akhnaten with English National Opera, Fricka in Das Rheingold with Birmingham Opera Company (UK), the title role in Carmen with Opera North (UK), Maketaten in Akhnaten with the Metropolitan Opera, Carlotta in Die Schweigsame Frau with Bard Summerscape, Stewardess in Dove’s Flight with Minnesota Opera, Elizabeth Keckley/Coretta Scott King in Glass’ Appomattox with Washington National Opera, Linda in Weill’s Lost in the Stars with Glimmerglass Festival, Charlotte in Werther with Opera Delaware and Baltimore Concert Opera, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Sarasota Opera, and Olga in Eugene Onegin with Northern Lights Music Festival. For the Birmingham Opera Company, she has also performed Katerina in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, and Hannah in Tippett’s The Ice Break, under the direction of Graham Vick. She created the role of Rebecca Parker in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird with Opera Philadelphia and has since sung with numerous companies including Seattle Opera and Pittsburgh Opera.
As a concert soloist, Ms. Williams recently sang Dett’s The Ordering of Moses City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut under Yannick Nézet- Séguin in Bach’s Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150. She has also recently performed with Cairo Symphony Orchestra (Egypt), Norrköping Symphony Orchestra (Sweden), Springfield Symphony, Boston Modern Orchestra Projects, Virginia Symphony, Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, and New Jersey Master Chorale.
Ms. Williams co-created the duo Forrópera in 2016 with Brazilian composer and accordionist, Felipe Hostins. She was awarded the Classical Post’s Most Innovative Singer 2019, the Musical Fund Society Career Grant Award 2020, International Opera Awards 2020 (Young Singer Nominee), and The First Prize and Audience Choice Award winner at the Wilhelm Stenhammar International Music Competition in Sweden. Ms. Williams has also received awards from the Giargiari Bel Canto Competition, the Liederkranz Foundation, the New England Region Finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
She is an alumna of the Academy of Vocal Arts and holds a Master of Music degree in Opera Performance from the Yale School of Music and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Voice Performance from Carnegie Mellon University.
