JORELL WILLIAMS
Baritone
OPERA OMAHA
Don Pasquale
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CREATING CONTEMPLATION
(Photo by Opera Omaha)
"Jorell Williams gives a tour de force performance as Don Pasquale. Pasquale isn’t really a bad person. His problem is that he’s so used to being the boss that he can’t acknowledge any viewpoint outside of his own. Williams has a fabulous sense of body language as he accurately portrays the aged Pasquale who suffers from the pains and creaks of old age. He blends comedic skill with his body language with his looks of shock and catatonia when Norina stands up to and even dominates him emotionally and physically as she wrests control of his house from him. Williams’ own formidable baritone shines throughout the night, though he also shows his massive vocal range at several points as he slides up the scale from deep bass to falsetto tenor."
TAPESTRY OPERA
Of The Sea
(World Premiere)
INTERMISSION MAGAZINE
(Photo: Dahlia Katz)
“This performance leaves you with hope for the future of Canadian opera, and is bound to pull you into the music of the sea life.
Of The Sea is, at its core, a story about how much a parent would sacrifice to save their child’s life.The action starts with Maduka (Jorell Williams) and his infant daughter Binyelum (later played by Ruthie Nkut) as they are thrown overboard from a slave ship and sink to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean…Williams’ outstanding vocal performance of Maduka begins demure, frightened by his new, sea-bound life, then evolves into fiery, driven arias with strong tessitura when his desire to escape becomes obsessive.”
NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC
Handel's Messiah
THE WASHINGTON POST
(Photo: Elman Studio)
“Insofar as one can steal the show of the “Messiah,” the commanding baritone Jorell Williams did so — a rock-solid singer with a keen understanding of his own expressive depths. But perhaps most enjoyable was observing the visible pleasure the singers took in listening to each other — like a little gift exchange onstage. And this time I may have joined the under-the-breath chorus.”
YARDBIRD
Seattle Opera
THE SEATTLE TIMES
(Photo: Sunny Martini)
"As Parker’s contemporary and friend Dizzy Gillespie, Jorell Williams steals the show with his easy charm and stunning vocals that cut through the music that often overpowers the voices of other cast members. During an overpopulated and conflict-burdened funeral scene that otherwise leaves one unmoved, Williams’ “Farewell” is beautifully delivered and draws one back into the gravity of the scene."
PARK AVENUE ARMORY
"The Let Go"
VOGUE MAGAZINE
(Photo: Da Ping Luo)
“Cave’s premiere performance took place in the Wade Thompson Drill Hall and filled the cool, dark space with a 40-foot, rainbow-color Mylar sculpture that dazzled the audience beneath it as it swooped by on rods encircling the crowd. Here, a group of young vocalists from the Sing Harlem Choir—lead by Jorell Williams and Vy Higginsen—sang songs in gospel-style harmonies before a transfixed audience. Their reprise belted out the words
“a change has come over me” as the dance performers
assumed their sound-suits, and after about 20 minutes of what
felt like a religious experience of calm—intended by Cave to create a moment of cathartic transfiguration in the mind and to, essentially, “let go”—the performers, singers, and space itself erupted into a full-on dance frenzy, culminating in a celebration of the collective differences of all who were there.”
NYFOS
Debut Concert
CLASSICAL VOICE AMERICA
(Photo: Faymous Studios)
"Two more singers – baritone Jorell Williams and soprano Devony Smith— joined Johnson for the world premiere of the six-song cycle After Stonewall, a co-commission by NYFOS and Five Boroughs Music Festival...The cycle begins with “Burning Bar,” composed by Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum and sung by Williams, whose voice thrilled from his thunderous lower range to his delicate falsetto. The musical style leaned on minimalism; occasional blues notes provided effective coloration."
BROOKLYN ART SONG SOCIETY
Copland’s “Old American Songs”
NEW YORK CLASSICAL REVIEW
(Photo: Brent Calis)
Baritone Jorell Williams’s vocal tone ranged from intimate forward diction to spacious resonance in the five songs of Set II. Brent Funderburk’s piano part, relegated by Copland somewhat to the background during Set I, now assumed more importance, providing a carillon-like setting for Williams’s preacher in “Zion’s Walls” and some Stravinskian edge to the dark sea shanty “The Golden Willow Tree…For his part, Williams sensitively captured the mood of each song, tender to ominous to ebullient. And it was nice to have that bass-baritone power in reserve for when the music needed it.”
FORT WORTH OPERA
A Night of Black Excellence
OPERA NEWS
(Photo: Faymous Studios)
“Blackness was indeed at the center of Fort Worth Opera’s February 21 digital concert, “A Night of Black Excellence,” the brainchild of the company’s recently appointed general director AIon BaJle—the first woman and first Black person to hold that office. An assemblage of taped clips, all necessarily recorded under pandemic condiOons, it featured an all-Black roster of singers, including both young arOsts and established performers...Baritone Jorell Williams’s a capella version of “Amazing Grace” was simple, direct and beautiful to hear.”
THE CRAZY WOMAN
Ricky Ian Gordon
Jorell Williams, Baritone
Christopher Cooley, Piano