About William

Welsh tenor William Searle is beginning an exciting opera and oratorio career, appearing at Garsington Opera, Scottish Opera,  Opera Holland Park, Buxton International Festival, Wexford Festival Opera and Vache Baroque, in addition to concert appearances from the Royal Albert Hall to Carnegie Hall in New York and with orchestras across Europe.

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During two seasons at Garsington Opera he covered Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro, 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 Tamino in The Magic Flute for The Merry Opera Company, Lensky [cover] in Eugene Onegin, Raoul de Saint-Brioche [cover] in The Merry Widow at Scottish Opera, Souffleur in Viva la Diva and Bertram in La donna del lago at Buxton International Festival, 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 and Don Eusebio in L'occasione fa il ladro with British Youth Opera. While at Opera School, he played Le Roi Ouf in L'étoile, Oliver Sacks in The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat and Young Man in A Feast In Time Of Plague, to widespread critical approval, as well as finishing as the runner-up in both the Ye Cronies Opera Award and the Norma Greig French Song Prize.

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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 Really Big Chorus at the Royal Albert Hall, 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.

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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 studio opportunities, he has sung on Hannah Peel's soundtrack to the film Silent Roar and he is currently recording Jack Halama's music for the second season of the television show Rivals.

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William is an accomplished stage performer having spent his formative years training with National Youth Theatre, and additional roles have included Anatol in Samuel Barber’s Vanessa (Brickhouse Theatre), the title role in Idomeneo and Tony in West Side Story (both Piggott's), as well as Opera Scenes as Gonzalve in L'heure espagnole, Ramiro in La Cenerentola, Jupiter in Semele, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, George in Sunday In the Park With George and Jaquino in Fidelio (all RCS), Faust in Gounod's Faust, Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Vašek in The Bartered Bride, Lyonel in Martha, Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro (all GSMD). 
 

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), Britten's St Nicolas (The Facade Ensemble), J.S. Bach’s Magnificat (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), St John Passion (Festival Lyrique-en-Mer, Queen's Park Singers, Phoenix Singers), St Matthew Passion (Battle Festival) and Christmas Oratorio (Beccles Choral Society), Haydn's The Creation (Helensburgh Oratorio Choir, Brecon Cathedral), The Seasons (Bath Abbey), Nelson Mass (Orquestra do Algarve) and Paukenmesse (Aberdeen Bach Choir), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Cambridge University Symphony 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 (Croydon Minster) and Vesperae Solennes (Llandaff Cathedral Choral Society), Schnittke's Requiem (Mogens Dahl Kammerkor - live on Danish radio), Stainer’s The Crucifixion (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.

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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.

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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.
 

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