Sir Willard Wentworth White CBE (b. October 10, 1946) is a Jamaican-born British bass-baritone. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these are Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross (GBE) Knight Commander... October 10 is the 283rd day of the year (284th in leap years). ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... A bass-baritone is a singing voice that shares certain qualities of both the baritone and the bass. ...

Early life

He was born into a poor but supportive Jamaican family in Kingston. His father was a dockworker, his mother was illiterate. White first began to learn music by listening to the radio and singing Nat King Cole songs. He was also inspired by the American singer and civil rights activist, Paul Robeson. He was a founding member of the Jamaica Folk Singers, sang with the Jamaica Amateur Operatic Society and trained at the Jamaican School of Music. In a passing visit to Jamaica, Evelyn Rothwell (wife of conductor Sir John Barbirolli) heard him sing and suggested that he go to study in London. Instead, his father bought him a one-way ticket to New York, because "the flight was cheaper". He won a scholarship and continued his studies with celebrated bass Giorgio Tozzi at the Juilliard School. The City of Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica. ... Nathaniel Adams Coles, known professionally as Nat King Cole (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965) was a popular American singer, songwriter, and jazz pianist. ... Civil rights or positive rights are those legal rights retained by citizens and protected by the government. ... Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change. ... Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was a multi-lingual American actor, athlete, bass-baritone concert singer, writer, civil rights activist, Communist sympathizer, Spingarn Medal winner, and Lenin Peace Prize laureate. ... Sir John (Giovanni Battista) Barbirolli (December 2, 1899 - July 29, 1970), was a British conductor and cellist who led the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Giorgio Tozzi (born January 8, 1923, in Chicago, Illinois) was for many years a leading bass with the Metropolitan Opera, and was seen in leading roles in nearly every major opera house worldwide. ... The Juilliard School is one of the worlds premiere performing arts conservatory located in New York City, it is informally identified as simply Juilliard, and trains in the fields of Dance, Drama, and Music. ...

Career

He made his debut with New York City Opera in 1974 as Colline in La Bohème. In 1976, he made his London opera debut with English National Opera as Seneca in Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea, having appeared earlier in the same year in Porgy and Bess. He has since sung at the Met, Covent Garden, Paris Bastille, the opera houses of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and the major European cities as well as the Festivals at Glyndebourne, Aix en Provence and Salzburg. The New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, seen from Lincoln Center Plaza New York State Theater The New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, interior, as seen from the stage The New York City Opera (NYCO) is based in Philip Johnsons New York State Theater at Lincoln Center. ... For other uses, see La bohème (disambiguation). ... The London Coliseum, home of the English National Opera English National Opera (ENO), located at the Coliseum Theatre on St. ... This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ... Lincoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea) is an opera seria in three acts by Claudio Monteverdi to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello, based on historical incidents described in the Annals of Tacitus. ... The cast of Porgy and Bess during the Boston try-out prior to the Broadway opening. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, the lead section of this article may need to be expanded. ... The Floral Hall of the Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House is a performing arts venue in London. ... The Opéra Bastille L’Opéra de la Bastille (Bastille Opera) is a modern opera house in Paris, France. ... San Francisco Opera (SFO) is the second largest opera company in North America. ... The Los Angeles Opera is a world-class opera company in Los Angeles, California. ... Glyndebourne Festival Opera is a opera festival held at Glyndebourne House near Lewes, in southern England. ... The Festival dAix-en-Provence, which is also known as the Festival international dArt Lyrique (International Opera Festival), is an annual summer festival of opera held in Aix-en-Provence in southern France. ... The Salzburg Festival (Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama. ...

In addition to covering a wide range of the bass-baritone roles in the standard repertoire by Mozart, Handel, Rossini, Verdi, Puccini and Wagner, White has explored less traditional, and in many cases, completely unfamiliar territory by appearing as Bluebeard in Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle, Golaud in Debussy's Pelléas and Mélisande, Tchélio in Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges, the title role in Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise, Nekrotzar in György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, Claggart in Britten's Billy Budd, John Adams’ El Niño, Nick Shadow in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, Creon in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex, the title role in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and Ivan in Khovanshchina. “Mozart” redirects here. ... George Frideric Handel, 1733 George Frideric Handel (23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-born British Baroque composer who was a leading composer of concerti grossi, operas and oratorios. ... Portrait Gioacchino Antonio Rossini (February 29, 1792 – November 13, 1868)[1] was an Italian musical composer who wrote more than 30 operas as well as sacred music and chamber music. ... Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (either October 9 or 10, 1813 – January 27, 1901) was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. ... Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini (December 22, 1858 – November 29, 1924) was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire. ... Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner (22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or music dramas as he later came to call them). ... B la Bart k (March 25, 1881 – September 26, 1945) was a composer, pianist and collector of East European folk music. ... A kékszakállú herceg vára, (commonly referred to by its English name, Duke Bluebeards Castle) is a one-act opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. ... Claude Debussy, photo by Félix Nadar, 1908. ... The story of Pelleas and Melisande is the subject of several dramatic works: Pelléas et Mélisande (play), a Symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck Pelléas et Mélisande (opera), an Impressionist opera by Claude Debussy Pelleas und Melisande, a symphonic poem by Arnold Schoenberg Pelléas et M... Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (Russian: , Sergej Sergejevič Prokofijev; April 27 (April 151 O.S.), 1891–March 5, 1953) was a Russian and Soviet composer who mastered numerous musical genres and came to be admired as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. ... The Love for Three Oranges (Любовь к трем апельсинам in Russian, Lyubov k Tryom Apelsinam in transliteration) is an opera by Sergei Prokofiev to a libretto based on the play Lamore delle tre melarance by Carlo Gozzi. ... Olivier Messiaen It has been suggested that List of students of Olivier Messiaen be merged into this article or section. ... Saint François dAssise is a French opera in three acts and eight scenes by composer and librettist Olivier Messiaen, written from 1975 to 1983. ... György Sándor Ligeti (May 28, 1923 – June 12, 2006) was a Jewish Hungarian composer born in Romania who later became an Austrian citizen. ... Le Grand Macabre (première 1978) is György Ligetis only opera. ... Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH (November 22, 1913 Lowestoft, Suffolk - December 4, 1976 Aldeburgh, Suffolk) was a British composer, conductor, and pianist. ... Billy Budd is an English language opera by Benjamin Britten, first performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on December 1, 1951. ... For the Alaska-based postminimalist composer, see John Luther Adams. ... Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (Russian: Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский, Igor Fëdorovič Stravinskij) (June 17, 1882 – April 6, 1971) was a Russian composer, considered by many in both the West and his native land to be the most influential composer of 20th-century music. ... The Rakes Progress is an English opera in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. ... Other musical works on the same subject include Oedipus Rex by Tom Lehrer, and Oedipus Tex by P. D. Q. Bach. ... Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (Моде́ст Петро́вич Му́соргский) (March 21, 1839 – March 28, 1881; sometimes spelt Modeste Moussorgsky), was an innovative Russian composer famed for his colourful... I regard the people as a great being, inspired by a single idea. ... Modest Mussorgsky in 1876 Khovanshchina (Russian: , Hovánščina, sometimes rendered The Khovansky Affair) is an opera (subtitled a national music drama) in five acts by Modest Mussorgsky. ...

In 2005 he sang Michael Tippett's A Child of our Time at the First Night of the Proms. His latest CD, entitled My Way, is on the Sony label. Sir Michael Kemp Tippett, O.M. (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was one of the foremost English composers of the 20th century. ... Sony Corporation ) is a Japanese multinational corporation and one of the worlds largest media conglomerates with revenue of $68. ...

His voice was heard as one of the operatic soloists in the Academy Award-winning motion picture Amadeus (film). Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... Amadeus is a 1984 film directed by Miloš Forman and based on the stage play Amadeus. ...

Among his most memorable roles is Mephistopheles in The Damnation of Faust. The Damnation of Faust (French: La damnation de Faust) is work for orchestra, voices, and chorus written by Hector Berlioz (he called it a légende dramatique). The libretto was adapted by Berlioz from Goethes Faust. ...

A talented actor, he has starred in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of the play Othello (1990), with Ian McKellen as Iago, and Imogen Stubbs as Desdemona; and the Glyndebourne production (1993) of the opera Porgy and Bess, both directed by Trevor Nunn and both videotaped for television. Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a British theatre company. ... Othello and Desdemona by Alexandre-Marie Colin. ... Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CBE (born May 25, 1939) is a veteran English stage and screen actor, the recipient of a Tony Award and two Oscar nominations. ... Imogen Stubbs, Lady Nunn (born 20 February 1961) is a British actress. ... The cast of Porgy and Bess during the Boston try-out prior to the Broadway opening. ... Sir Trevor King (born 14 January 1940) is a loser and film director. ... Bottom view of VHS videotape cassette with magnetic tape exposed Videotape is a means of recording images and sound onto magnetic tape as opposed to movie film. ...

White also appeared with Cantamus Girls Choir in Harrogate, 2004. Cantamus Girls Choirs latest album cover The Cantamus Girls Choir is a choir based in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire and consists of approximately forty girls aged between thirteen and nineteen. ...

Awards

In 1977, White received a Grammy award (for Porgy and Bess). He also received the Gold Musgrave Medal of The Institute of Jamaica. In 1995 he was awarded the CBE and he was made a Knight Bachelor in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2004. In 2000, Sir Willard White was awarded the Order of Merit (OM), the third highest honour in the Jamaican honours system, for eminent international distinction in the performing arts. Grammy Award statuette The Grammy Awards, presented by the Recording Academy (an association of Americans professionally involved in the recorded music industry) for outstanding achievements in the recording industry, is one of four major music awards shows held annually in the United States (the Billboard Music Awards, the American Music... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these are Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross (GBE) Knight Commander... The British honours system is a means of rewarding individuals personal bravery, achievement or service to the United Kingdom. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Jamaican Honours System has developed as a unique entity since the passage of the National Honours and Awards Act by the Parliament of Jamaica in 1969 (Act No. ...

White is the father of seven children and lives in Lewisham, London. Lewisham is a district in south-east London, England and the principal settlement of the London Borough of Lewisham. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

Selected Discography

• The Paul Robeson Legacy. a collection of spirituals and ballads made famous by Paul Robeson, arranged specially for Willard White. Linn Records
• Willard White - A Gala Celebration: Carl Davis: Three Spirituals, On The Beach (Whitman), Copland: Old American Songs, opera arias by Mozart & Gounod, Bizet's Pearl Fishers Duet, & Broadway numbers including Some Enchanted Evening and Ol' Man River. With Bonaventura Bottone, tenor, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir and The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Carl Davis, conductor. RLCD 204
• Porgy and Bess with Cynthia Haymon, Harolyn Blackwell, The Glyndebourne Chorus and London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Simon Rattle. EMI.
• Mozart: Requiem with Barbara Bonney, Anne Sofie von Otter, Hans Peter Blochwitz, The Monteverdi Choir, The English Baroque Soloists conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
• Handel: Messiah with Yvonne Kenny, Jean Rigby and Thomas Randle, with the Royal Choral Society and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Owain Arvel Hughes

Carl Davis CBE (born October 28, 1936, New York City, United States) is an American conductor and composer who has been living in the UK since 1961. ... Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (November 14, 1900 – December 2, 1990) was an American composer of concert and film music, as well as an accomplished pianist. ... Harolyn Blackwell is an African-American lyric soprano who has graced many of the worlds finest opera houses, concert halls, and theaters in operas, oratorios, recitals, and Broadway musicals. ... Simon Rattle recording Porgy and Bess with the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road in 1988, aged 33. ... Barbara Bonney (born April 14, 1956) is an American soprano opera singer. ... The Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter (born 9 May 1955) is a well-known opera singer and concert recitalist. ... Gardiner conducting Sir John Eliot Gardiner CBE (born April 20, 1943, Fontmell, Dorset, England) is an English conductor. ... Yvonne Kenny is an Australian opera singer. ... Royal Choral Society is a choral group based in London, England. ... The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is an English orchestra based in London. ...

External links

• Willard White at the Internet Movie Database