Baritone William Sharp is a consummate artist possessing the rare combination of vocal beauty, sensitivity and charisma. Praised by The New York Times as a "sensitive and subtle singer" who is able to evoke "the special character of every song that he sings," Mr. Sharp has earned a reputation as a singer of great versatility and continues to garner critical acclaim for his work in concerts, recitals, operas and recordings.
Mr. Sharp has appeared throughout the United States with major orchestras and music festivals. In recent seasons he has performed with the New York Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He is a frequent participant in Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Colorado Music Festival and the Marlboro Music Festival. Mr. Sharp also enjoys his work in the performance of baroque and pre-baroque music. He has made numerous appearances with the Bach Aria Group, the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Maryland Handel Festival.
Mr. Sharp's concert highlights include Britten's War Requiem with the Boston University Symphony at Symphony Hall, and with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra both in Cincinnati and at Carnegie Hall (James Conlon conducting). He has also performed with the Boston Philharmonic in Mahler's Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen, with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in works of Barber, Bernstein and Schickele, and with the New York Festival of Song in a gala performance celebrating their 15th Anniversary. He appeared with the Oregon Symphony in a program of Ives' songs, with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players in Boston and at Tanglewood singing Harbison's Words from Paterson, with Toronto's Tafelmusik performing works of Bach and Zelenka, and with the Fort Worth Symphony for Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem. He is a regular performer with the Bethlehem Bach Festival. Performances there have included St. John Passion, the Mass in b minor, selected cantatas, and Bach's Christmas Oratorio. Other Bach engagements include the St. Matthew Passion on a national tour with The Smithsonian Chamber Players and Bach's Mass in b minor at Bryn Mawr University with Helmut Rilling. He has appeared as soloist with the Da Camera Society of Houston for an evening of songs by Schumann, Brahms and Wolf, a program of songs by American composers, Schumann's Dichterliebe, and "Marcel Proust's Paris," a program of songs by French composers. Mr. Sharp has sung Handel's Messiah with Musica Sacra at Avery Fisher Hall and with the Vancouver Cantata Singers.
Mr. Sharp's other recent credits include John Adams' Nixon in China with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Brooklyn Philharmonic, David del Tredici's Gay Life with the San Francisco Symphony, Four Saints in Three Acts with the Mark Morris Dance Group at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and at Cal Performances in Berkeley, and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, also with the Mark Morris Dance Group. Overseas he has performed Sam in Trouble in Tahiti with VARA Radio in the Netherlands, and Dandini in La Cenerentola at L'Opera de Nice.
William Sharp made his New York recital debut at the 92nd St. Y in 1983. In 1984 he made his Kennedy Center debut, followed by his Carnegie Hall recital debut in 1989. The Carnegie debut earned critical praise including that of Bill Zakariasen of the Daily News, who wrote that Mr. Sharp's "musicianship is right on the button, his knowledge of styles seems infinite, and he has an infectious sense of humor." William Sharp is the winner of the 1987 Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition.
William Sharp was nominated for a 1989 Grammy award for Best Classical Vocal Performance for his recording featuring the works of American composers such as Virgil Thomson, John Musto and Lee Hoiby on the New World Records label. He can also be heard on the 1990 Grammy award-winning, world premiere recording of Leonard Bernstein's Arias and Barcarolles on the Koch International label. Other recent recordings of Mr. Sharp's include the songs of Marc Blitzstein with The New York Festival of Song (Koch), J.S. Bach solo cantatas with the American Bach Soloists (Koch), and a collaboration with soprano Judith Kaye and pianist Steven Blier on Gershwin's Songs and Duets. Mr. Sharp has also recorded for Vox-Turnabout, Newport Classics, Columbia Records, Nonesuch and CRI.