Nardus Williams

Nardus Williams, winner of the Rising Star Award at the 2022 International Opera Awards, has quickly become one of the most exciting and versatile British singers of her generation. Praised for her ‘magnetism’ and ‘unobtrusive intimacy’ (The Arts Desk), she has ‘confirmed her place as an outstanding artist’ (Early Music Review).

In the 2026/27 season, Nardus reprises the role of Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro with Ottavio Dantone for Norwegian National Opera and adds three new roles to her repertoire: Leontine in Omar Elerian’s new production of The Anonymous Lover for Welsh National Opera, Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito with Clemens Schuldt for Garsington Opera, and Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare with the China Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Laurence Cummings.

Concert engagements this season include Bach’s St John Passion with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Laurence Cummings, Messiah with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra conducted by John Butt, Beethoven’s Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mark Wigglesworth, appearances with the London Mozart Players, the Chineke! Orchestra, the London Handel Festival and Bury Bach Choir, and concerts in Berlin and London with electronic duo Space Afrika.

Nardus continues her collaboration with the Dunedin Consort in Handel’s Leading Ladies and as Nicotris in Handel’s Belshazzar in concert.

In recital, Nardus makes her debut at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and at Music in the Veneto with Elizabeth Kenny and returns to the Oxford  International Festival of Song to premiere a new commission.

Recent operatic highlights include Partenope Partenope for English National Opera; Adina in L’elisir d’amore for Glyndebourne; Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni for Opéra de Rouen Normandie; Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress for the Glyndebourne Tour; Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte for English National Opera and Opera Australia; Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro for Opera Holland Park, Glyndebourne, and English National Opera; the world premiere of George Lewis’s The Comet / Poppea as Poppea at MOCA Los Angeles; Asteria in Tamerlano for the London Handel Festival; and Belinda in the world premiere of Dido’s Ghost, a co- commission by the Dunedin Consort, Mahogany Opera, and the Barbican.

Concert highlights include Handel’s Gloria with the Tonkünstler Orchestra at the Grafenegg Festival and with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century at the Concertgebouw; Messiah with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, the Dunedin Consort, and at the BBC Proms with the Academy of Ancient Music; Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Glyndebourne Sinfonia; Angelo in Handel’s La Resurrezione on tour with Le Banquet Céleste; Handel’s Brockes Passion with the English Concert; the title role in Handel’s Esther at the London Handel Festival; Fauré’s Requiem with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra; Mozart’s Mass in C minor at the BBC Proms, with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra, and with the London Philharmonic Orchestra; Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D with the BBC Symphony Orchestra; Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hanover Band; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Hallé Orchestra; Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Bach’s St John Passion and Handel’s Clori, Tirsi e Fileno with the Dunedin Consort at the Edinburgh International Festival; Bach’s St Matthew Passion with The Bach Choir; and the title role in Das Paradies und die Peri with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland.

Recital appearances have taken her to the BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall, Snape Maltings, St John’s Smith Square, Leeds Song, and the Oxford International Song Festival. Alongside Elizabeth Kenny, she has also performed at Wigmore Hall, LIFE Victoria Barcelona, the Tower of London for Spitalfields Music, and the Cambridge Music Festival, and continues to tour I Never Laid Eyes on Aeneas...: Women’s Stories from the Ancient World with Dame Mary Beard and Elizabeth Kenny.

Her debut album, Handel in Rome, featuring Handel's Italian cantatas recorded with the Dunedin Consort and John Butt, was released on Linn Records in 2024 to widespread critical acclaim.

Nardus was a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio for the 2018/19 season and is a former Jerwood Young Artist at Glyndebourne and Harewood Artist at English National Opera. She trained at the International Opera School at the Royal College of Music, where she was the sole recipient of the prestigious Kiri Te Kanawa Scholarship.