William Burden

William Burden was raised in Florida and received his master’s degree in vocal performance from Indiana University. He was a member of the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program and the Apprentice Artists Program at the Santa Fe Opera. During the 2011-12 season, Mr. Burden made his debut with the Canadian Opera Company as Jupiter in Semele and returned to the Seattle Opera as Orpheus in Orphée et Euriydice. He also appeared in two world premieres: Christopher Theonidis’s Heart of a Soldier at the San Francisco Opera, and Kevin Puts’s Silent Night at the Minnesota Opera. This summer, he returns to the Santa Fe Opera as the Shepherd in Szymanowski’s King Roger. Next season he returns to the Metropolitan Opera for a new production of Thomas Adès’s The Tempest,tothe Opera Company of Philadelphia for Silent Night, and to the San Francisco Opera as Peter in the world premiere of Mark Adamo’s The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. William Burden has appeared at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, the Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Glimmerglass, and New York City operas, Teatro alla Scala, Opéra National de Paris, the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, Thèâtre du Châtelet, Bavarian State Opera, Berlin State Opera, Madrid’s Teatro Real, and at the Saito Kinen Festival. He has been featured in the title roles in Faust, Pelléas et Mélisande, The Rake’s Progress, Roméo et Juliette, Béatrice et Bénédict, Candide,and Acis and Galatea, among many others. He also appeared in the US premiere of Henze’s Phaedra at the Opera Company of Philadelphia, and he created the roles of Gilbert Griffiths in Picker’s An American Tragedy at the Metropolitan Opera and Dodge in Daron Hagen’s Amelia at the Seattle Opera. He recently made his Edinburgh Festival debut in the title role of Judas Maccabeus. In concert, Mr. Burden has appeared with the Chicago, Atlanta, and Houston symphony orchestras, the Philadelphia and Minnesota orchestras, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and with Les Arts Florissants at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, in Barcelona, and in Lyon. His recordings include Barber’s Vanessa with the BBC Symphony Orchestra on the Chandos label and Musique adorable: The Songs of Emmanuel Chabrier on Hyperion. Mr. Burden makes his San Francisco Symphony debut at these concerts.

(June 2012)