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| 24 year old British bass singer Will Thomas |
With the Annual Music Competition (AMC) Gold Medal Finalist now just around the corner, we meet our third finalist, British bass Will Thomas; one of the four soloists who will be competing for the £15,000 first prize at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 30 May.
24 year old Will is the winner of the 2019 Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition, winner of the 2018 Kathleen Ferrier Award and winner of the 2018 John Christie Award from Glyndebourne. A Jerwood Young Artist in the 2018 Glyndebourne Chorus, he sang the role of Nicholas in Barber’s Vanessa.
Brought up in Harpenden, Will is currently on the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studies with John Evans.
In January 2019, he performed the bass solo at Wigmore Hall in Graham Johnson’s Songmakers’ Almanac and in November 2018, he made his LSO debut performing Bartok’s Cantata under François-Xavier Roth at the Barbican Concert Hall.
He sang the bass role in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Lyon in June 2018 and made his debut performance in 2017 as the Shepherd in Pelléas et Mélisande at Garsington Opera.
Will is a Help Musicians UK Maidment award holder, won the Joaninha Trust Award in March 2018 and also became a Drake Calleja Scholar 2018-19.
He enjoys a busy schedule as a recitalist and in operatic roles. Future engagements include a Songmakers’ Almanac Concert with Graham Johnson in June 2019.
While singers have been well represented at the AMC Gold Medal Final over the years, with baritone Morgan Pearson winning most recently in 2013, a bass has never taken home the prize. Could this be the year?
First published at Royal Over-seas League, May 2019