About William

Welsh tenor William Searle is at the beginning of an exciting opera and oratorio career, taking up a contract as an Alvarez Young Artist at Garsington Opera and appearing in oratorios from the Royal Albert Hall to Carnegie Hall.  He is about to graduate from 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.

Previous opera roles include Lensky [cover] in Eugene Onegin and Bertram in La donna del lago at Buxton International Festival, as well as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte with Aberdeen University, Albazar in Il turco in Italia at Longhope Summer Opera and Don Eusebio in L'occasione fa il ladro with British Youth Opera.

He is in increasing demand as an oratorio soloist following collaborations with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall, the Really Big Chorus at the Royal Albert Hall, the Center for Music and Liturgy at Carnegie Hall, and the English Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble, in addition to song recitals with Graham Johnson at the Wigmore Hall and with the LSO Discovery series at LSO St Luke's. He also sang live on Classic FM for a Westminster Christmas from St John's, Smith Square, following his graduation with first-class honours from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he studied with Robert Dean and Adrian Thompson.

Having trained as a member of the National Youth Theatre, William is an accomplished stage performer, covering Lensky in Eugene Onegin and playing Bertram in La donna del lago and Souffleur in Viva la Diva at Buxton International Festival, in addition to recent roles as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte (Aberdeen University Opera Society),  Don Eusebio in L'occasione fa il ladro (British Youth Opera), Albazar in Il turco in Italia (Longhope Summer Opera), Anatol in Samuel Barber’s Vanessa (Brickhouse Theatre), the title role in Idomeneo, Tony in West Side Story (both Piggott's), 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 Opera Scenes and Showcases), 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 Opera Scenes)
As a former Making Music UK artist, William is a passionate performer of oratorio in repertoire including Britten's St Nicolas (The Facade Ensemble), Smyth's Mass in D (Stowmarket Chorale), J.S. Bach’s Magnificat (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), St John Passion (The Gippeswyk Singers), St Matthew Passion (Battle Festival) and Christmas Oratorio (Beccles Choral Society), Monteverdi’s Vespri della Beata Vergine (English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble), Handel’s Messiah (Chapel Royal Tower of London), Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle (Southend Festival Chorus), Mozart’s Requiem (Croydon Minster), Schnittke's Requiem (Mogens Dahl Kammerkor - live on Danish radio), Beethoven’s

Symphony No. 9 (Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra), Stainer’s The Crucifixion (Chapel Royal Tower of London) and Haydn's 'Nelson' Mass (LSO Discovery), as well as Pärt’s Passio, Stockhausen’s Stimmung (both The Facade Ensemble) and Maxwell-Davies’s Solstice of Light (Cantate).

William is also a keen interpreter of song, performing with Graham Johnson in the Wigmore Hall's Schubertiade, singing a programme of Charles Ives for the LSO Discovery series and recording a disc of Robert Franz lieder with pianists Sebastian Wybrew and Marc Verter.
Having trained with Llandaff Cathedral Choir, Gloucester Cathedral Choir, the Genesis Sixteen and the National Youth Choir of Great Britain Fellowship, William maintains a busy schedule of chorus and consort singing with The Sixteen, Polyphony, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Dunedin Consort, the Britten Sinfonia, Arcangelo, the Chapel Royal at the Tower of London, Mogens Dahl Kammerkor, the William Byrd Choir and the London Handel Festival.

He was previously taught by Veronica Veysey-Campbell, Ryland Davies and Dr Ron Morris alongside coachings and masterclasses with Sir John Tomlinson, Carlo Rizzi, Graham Johnson, Marcus Farnsworth, Nicky Spence, Kitty Whateley, Dame Emma Kirkby, Dame Ann Murray, Edith Wiens, Kim Begley and Tom Guthrie.

Aside from singing, William enjoys chorusmastering, directing and teaching, working with artists including Stephen Fry, Sebastian Faulks, Judith Weir, Toby Spence and the King’s Singers, and on productions including Eugene Onegin and Sweeney Todd, in addition to regularly coaching the tenors of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain Training Choir. After two years working at Whitgift School as a teacher, conductor and choral animateur, he continues to give private lessons in academic music and singing. In 2018, he founded, sang and cycled with a consort named The Song Cyclists to fourteen consecutive concerts over 1000 miles from John O'Groats to Land's End, raising £20,000 for the mental health charity Mind.
His studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama were kindly sponsored by the Gillian and Freddie Martin Award and The Margery and Stephen Wright Eisinger Award, while he continues studying at RCS on a Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Trust scholarship.

Upcoming commitments range from Bach in St Machar's Cathedral in Aberdeen to Haydn in Faro Cathedral in Portugal, all while preparing the roles of Ufficiale in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Major Domo and Offizier [covers] in Ariadne auf Naxos and Ringmaster [cover] in The Bartered Bride for Garsington Opera.

​