Biography

Raised in Florida, tenor William Burden received his master’s degree in vocal performance at Indiana University. He was also a member of the Merola Program in San Francisco and at the Apprentice Artists Program at the Santa Fe Opera. This season Mr. Burden makes his debut at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City in Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi and returns to the Seattle Opera in the title role in Offenbach’s Les Contes d'Hoffmann. He also sings his first Faust in Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust with the Arizona Symphony as part of the Desert Song Festival, and appears in concert with Boston Baroque.

In concert, Mr. Burden has appeared with the Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, and Saint Louis symphonies, the Philadelphia and Minnesota orchestras, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, and with Les Arts Florissants at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Barcelona, and Lyon. Mr. Burden appeared in the US premiere of Henze’s Phaedra at the Opera Company of Philadelphia, and created the roles of Peter in Mark Adamo's The Gospel of Mary Magdalene and Dan Hill in Christopher Theofanidis’s Heart of a Soldier at the San Francisco Opera, Frank Harris in Theodore Morrison's Oscar at Santa Fe Opera, Gilbert Griffiths in Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy at the Metropolitan Opera, Dodge in Daron Hagen’s Amelia at the Seattle Opera, and Niklas Sprink in Kevin Puts’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night at the Minnesota Opera. He also appeared in the Metropolitan Opera's live HD broadcast of Thomas Adès's The Tempest.

Mr. Burden’s recordings include Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony on SFS Media, Barber’s Vanessa, in the role of Anatol, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra on Chandos, and songs of Chabrieron Hyperion. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 2012.

(January 2014)