TENOR
About William
Anglo-Welsh tenor William Searle is a leading interpreter of concert and character repertoire, appearing at English National Opera, Scottish Opera, Garsington Opera, Opera Holland Park, Buxton International Festival, Wexford Festival Opera, Wild Arts and Vache Baroque, in addition to concert appearances from the Royal Albert Hall to Carnegie Hall in New York and with orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, Britten Sinfonia, the English Concert, London Mozart Players and the Instruments of Time and Truth.
During two seasons as an Alvarez Emerging Artist at Garsington Opera he covered Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro and played Ufficiale in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Ringmaster [OperaFirst performance] in The Bartered Bride, as well as covering Major Domo and Offizier in Ariadne auf Naxos. Other recent roles have included Saint-Brioche [cover] in The Merry Widow at Scottish Opera, Tamino in The Magic Flute for The Merry Opera Company, Lensky [cover] in Eugene Onegin, Souffleur in Viva la Diva and Bertram in La donna del lago at Buxton International Festival, Gosling in Rosalind with the London Mozart Players, Sergente Marocchino in La ciociara at Wexford Festival Opera, Le Chef des Castellans in Le carnaval de Venise at Vache Baroque, Albazar in Il turco in Italia at Longhope Summer Opera, Gastone in La traviata at Wedmore Opera, Don Eusebio in L'occasione fa il ladro with British Youth Opera, Le Roi Ouf in L'étoile and Oliver Sacks in The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Opera School. He is looking forward to making his English National Opera debut this autumn in Angel's Bone by Du Yun.
With a passion for performing oratorios off by heart and with an operatic level of commitment and detail, William is in increasing demand as a concert soloist in the UK and abroad, singing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall, Manchester Camerata, the Instruments of Time and Truth, the Really Big Chorus at the Royal Albert Hall, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Armonico Consort and the English Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble, as well as performing for The Center for Music and Liturgy at Carnegie Hall in New York, Mogens Dahl Kammerkor in Copenhagen, the Orquestra do Algarve in Faro, Festival Lyrique-en-Mer in France and the Festival de Torroella and the Semana de Musica Religiosa Cuenca, both in Spain. He was a finalist in the 2025 Leach Competition for Oratorio and English Song.
He is also a keen performer of song, appearing with Graham Johnson in his Schubertiade at the Wigmore Hall, live on Classic FM for a Westminster Christmas from St John's, Smith Square, as part of the LSO Discovery series at LSO St Luke's, with Julian Philips and the actor Toby Jones in settings of John Clare poetry and alongside Stephen Mangan in A Christmas Carol at Cadogan Hall. His pianist partners include Edward Picton-Turbervill and Anna Michels and while a student, he collaborated with Sebastian Wybrew, Marc Verter and Harriet Burns to record a disc of Robert Franz's settings of Osterwald for the MPR label.
In other recording opportunities, he is the tenor soloist on the Britten Sinfonia's upcoming disc of Richard Blackford's The Black Lake, in addition to appearances on Jack Halama's music for the television show Rivals and Hannah Peel's soundtrack to the film Silent Roar.
As a former Making Music UK artist, William is a committed advocate for the oratorio tradition, appearing in Handel's Messiah (Manchester Camerata, Armonico, Royal Albert Hall, Chapel Royal Tower of London), Acis and Galatea (Instruments of Time and Truth), Alexander's Feast (The Royal Free Singers, Ashford Choral Society), Britten's St Nicolas (The Facade Ensemble), J.S. Bach’s Magnificat (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Instruments of Time and Truth), St John Passion (Festival Lyrique-en-Mer, Queen's Park Singers, Phoenix Singers), St Matthew Passion (Armonico Consort and Battle Festival), Christmas Oratorio (Temple Music Foundation and Beccles Choral Society) and B-minor Mass (Armonico Consort, Llandaff Cathedral Choral Society), Haydn's The Creation (Helensburgh Oratorio Choir, Brecon Cathedral), The Seasons (Bath Abbey and Alyth Choral Society), Nelson Mass (Orquestra do Algarve, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra) and Paukenmesse (Aberdeen Bach Choir), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra) and Choral Fantasy (Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra), Monteverdi’s Vespri della Beata Vergine (English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble), C.P.E. Bach's Magnificat (Ashford Choral Society), Smyth's Mass in D (Stowmarket Chorale), Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle (Ardwyn Singers), Mozart’s Requiem (Scherzo Ensemble, Croydon Minster) and Vesperae Solennes (Llandaff Cathedral Choral Society), Schnittke's Requiem (Mogens Dahl Kammerkor - live on Danish radio), Stainer’s The Crucifixion (London Concert Choir, Chapel Royal Tower of London), Dvořák's Mass in D, Kodály's Missa Brevis (both Llandaff Cathedral Choral Society), Pärt’s Passio and Stabat Mater, Stockhausen’s Stimmung (all The Facade Ensemble) and Maxwell-Davies’s Solstice of Light (Cantate).
He graduated with distinctions from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where his studies with Scott Johnson were supported by a Help Musicians Sybil Tutton Award. He currently studies with Professor Susan McCulloch, following lessons with Ryland Davies, Robert Dean and Adrian Thompson, as well as coachings and masterclasses with renowned figures such as Sir John Tomlinson, Carlo Rizzi, Graham Johnson, Marcus Farnsworth, Nicky Spence, Kitty Whateley, Dame Emma Kirkby, Dame Ann Murray, Roland Wood, Edith Wiens, Kim Begley and Tom Guthrie.
With great gratitude for his chorister training, moving from Llandaff Cathedral Choir to Gloucester Cathedral Choir, to the Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, then to the Genesis Sixteen and finally into the National Youth Choir of Great Britain Fellowship, William enjoys an occasional appearance with groups such as The Sixteen, Polyphony, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Dunedin Consort, the Britten Sinfonia, Arcangelo, Exaudi and the Armonico Consort, as well as Sunday mornings with London's most prestigious church choirs.
Before singing professionally, William enjoyed producing events for artists including Stephen Fry, Sebastian Faulks, Judith Weir, Toby Spence and the King’s Singers, and teaching, chorusmastering productions including Eugene Onegin and Sweeney Todd alongside giving classroom music lessons at Whitgift School. He continues to teach the tenors of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and he is available for private singing lessons.
In 2018, he founded, sang and cycled with a consort named The Song Cyclists to fourteen consecutive concerts over 1000 miles between John O'Groats and Land's End, raising £20,000 for the mental health charity Mind. In his spare time, he enjoys getting out into nature, watching rugby rather than playing it these days and (often accidentally) experimental cookery.