The British bass William Thomas studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. He went on to be a member of the Harewood Artists Programme of the English National Opera from 2021 to 2022, and a BBC New Generation Artist from 2021 to 2023.
In the 2022/23 season he sang Snug (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) at the Opéra de Rouen and Colline (La bohème) at the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival and with Glyndebourne on Tour, and also appeared with Glyndebourne on Tour in Mozart’s Requiem. In concert his most recent appearances include Handel’s Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music under Laurence Cummings and Bach’s St John Passion with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra under Philipp von Steinaecker.
Future engagements will include his house debuts at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and at La Scala, Milan, and his return to the Paris Opéra.
In recent seasons he has sung Colline for the English National Opera, Knight of the Grail (Parsifal) in Paris, Nicholas in the first British performances of Samuel Barber’s Vanessa at Glyndebourne, Shepherd (Pelléas et Mélisande) for Garsington Opera and Snug for the Vienna State Opera.
He has performed at the BBC Proms with the Monteverdi Orchestra under John Eliot Gardiner in Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, and with the Britten Sinfonia under David Bates in Mozart’s Requiem. Other concert appearances include Bach’s St John Passion with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique under Gardiner.
