Dean Williamson

Conductor

Dean Williamson is widely known throughout the United States for his perceptive and commanding conducting. His ambitious and versatile career in standard and contemporary repertoire earns the conductor worldwide acclaim. The Washington Post says “a brilliantly directed, beautifully sung and endlessly funny Barber of Seville…the orchestra, which played the sparkling overture and the vivid storm music with grace and color under the expert baton of Dean Williamson.” The Seattle Times says “Williamson keeps a sure, steady hand on the singers and the orchestra…realizing the shimmering and otherworldly textures of the score.”

This season engagements include both La Cenerentola and David Lang’s The Difficulty of Crossing a Field for the Nashville Opera, I Pagliacci with Skagit Opera, The Turn of the Screw with Baldwin-Wallace University, and the World Premiere of Lori Laitman’s The Scarlet Letter with Opera Colorado.

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…admirable style, buoyant tempos…

Cosi - “As always, Williamson presided in the pit with his admirable style, buoyant tempos and shapely phrases. He supports the singers but never indulges them by lingering unduly. His work is inevitably lucid and organic, even poetic, which cannot be said for many conductors.” – Seattle Post-Intelligencer

…sure command…

Carmen - “Tim Ocel’s vivid traditional staging and Dean Williamson’s sure command from the pit highlighted the ensemble aspect of this production.”– Opera News

…obtains the maximum effect…

Don Giovanni -“Providing superb support for the singers as he leads a pit orchestra of Colorado Symphony musicians is conductor Dean Williamson, who obtains the maximum effect from each scene and beautifully showcases Mozart’s masterful score.”– The Denver Post

…nuance abounded without mannerism…

Eugene Onegin - “In the pit, conductor Dean Williamson was in top form. Nuance abounded without mannerism. He was in charge, yet let the singers have their moments to hold a high note or two or be flexibly expressive. The orchestra was, of course, small; where could one put more players? But with the exception of the grand ball in Prince Gremin’s palace, where one missed the lush string sound, the size was perfect for opera. Indeed, it was a reminder of Tchaikovsky’s love of Mozart.”– Society Journal

…polished, vibrant work…

The Rake’s Progress - “The orchestra does polished, vibrant work, conducted by Dean Williamson, who keeps the rhythms crisp, the pacing taut, but with plenty of room for sensitive phrasing in the lyrical episodes.” -The Baltimore Sun

…both steady and impassioned…

Les Contes d’Hoffmann -“One sign of a really excellent opera production is that you’re not conscious of the singing and the acting as separate entities: Instead, the music and drama meld into one beautiful whole… Dean Williamson’s conducting, both steady and impassioned, was a major factor in the production’s success.”– Opera News

Composer	Opera
Amram	The Twelfth Night
Bernstein	Trouble in Tahiti
Britten	Peter Grimes
	The Turn of the Screw
Barber	Vanessa
Beethoven	Fidelio
Bellini	Norma
Bizet	Carmen
	Les pecheurs de perles
Debussy	Pelleas et Melisande
Donizetti	Lucia di Lammermoor
	L’Elisir d’Amore
	Anna Bolena
	Don Pasquale
	La fille du regiment
Delibes	Lakme
Dvorak	Rusalka
Floyd	The Passion of Jonathan Wade
Giordano	Andrea Chenier
Gounod	Faust
	Romeo et Juliette
Handel	Xerxes
Humperdinck	Hansel und Gretel
Janacek	The Cunning Little Vixen
Kern	Show Boat
Lehar	The Merry Widow
Leoncavallo	I pagliacci
Mascagni	Cavalleria rusticana
Massenet	Werther
Moore	The Ballad of Baby Doe
Mollicone	The Face on the Barroom Floor
Menotti	Amahl and the Night Visitors
Mozart	Cosi fan tutte
	Le nozze di Figaro
	Don Giovanni
	Die Zauberflote
	Der Schauspieldirecktor
	Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail
	La finta giardiniera
	La clemenza di Tito
Offenbach	Orphee aux enfers
	Les contes d’Hoffmann
Prokofiev	War and Peace
Poulenc	Les dialogues des Carmelites
Puccini	Manon Lescaut
	La bohème
	Tosca
	Madama Butterfly
	La rondine
	Suor Angelica
	Gianni Schicchi
	Turandot
Purcell	King Arthur
Rossini	L’italiana in Algeri
	Il barbiere di Siviglia
	La Cenerentola
Sondheim	Passion
	Showboat
	Sweeney Todd
Strauss, J.	Die Fledermaus
Strauss, R.	Elektra
	Der Rosenkavalier
	Ariadne auf Naxos
	Die Liebe der Danae
Tchaikovsky	Onegin
Verdi	Macbeth
	Rigoletto
	Il trovatore
	La traviata
	Un ballo in maschera
	Don Carlos
	Aida
Wagner	Der fliegende Hollander
	Lohengrin
	Das Rheingold
	Die Walkure
	Siegfried
	Gotterdammerung
	Tristan und Isolde
Weber	Der Freischutz
	Oberon

Engagements have included returns to the Seattle Opera for Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, I Pagliacci, Turn of the Screw and Le Nozze di Figaro; The Rake’s Progress, Don Pasquale and La Cenerentola at Wolf Trap Opera; La Bohème with Opera Santa Barbara; Die Zauberflöte with Opera Colorado; Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Carmen at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis; L’Italiana in Algeri for Boston Lyric Opera; Lucia di Lammermoor with Minnesota Opera; La Fanciulla del West , Roméo et Juliette and Samson et Dalila with Nashville Opera; Il Trovatore, Madama Butterfly, Cavalleria Rusticana/I Pagliacci and The Magic Flute at the Chautauqua Opera; Summer and Smoke with the New England Conservatory; Street Scene for Hardin-Simmons University; Don Giovanni for Baldwin-Wallace University; The Magic Flute for Northwestern University; Don Pasquale and twice for the Grand Finale concert with the San Francisco Opera Merola young artists.

Williamson served as the Artistic Director of Opera Cleveland from 2008-2010, in which he conducted Don Giovanni, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Bohème, Hänsel und Gretel, Le Nozze di Figaro, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Falstaff, Les pêcheurs de perles and their final production of La Voix Humaine/I Pagliacci. In addition, Williamson served until 2002 as the Music Director and Conductor of the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program. He had led all of the program’s productions, such as Falstaff, Cosi Fan Tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, La Cenerentola, and La Bohème. He was Music Director of the Washington East Opera, and Artistic Director of the Viva Voce Song Recital Series with the Northwest Chamber Orchestra.

Williamson has also worked with the Caramoor Festival, Central City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, the Blossom Festival, the Banff Festival, the Colorado Arts Festival, the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, Opera Idaho, Bellevue Philharmonic, and has served as Guest Faculty for the University of Washington and New York University. Mr. Williamson has also performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe as accompanist with some of the world’s leading singers in such venues as Weill Recital Hall, the Wieniawski Society, and at Merkin Hall.

His discography includes Richard Danielpour’s Chamber Concerto, Respighi’s Prelude, Bach’s Fugue, and a program of Chopin/Bartok entitled Musically Speaking all on the Delos label, as well as He’ll Bring It To Pass and Songs of Harold Arlen with Mezzo-Soprano Del-Louise Moyer on Alyssum.