Will Liverman - The Dunbar/Moore Sessions (Complete Collection) (2025)

Baritone Will Liverman is an unusually versatile singer, performing both mainstream operatic repertory and music rooted in the African American tradition in which he grew up. He has performed in the premieres of several new works.

William Liverman was born in Norfolk, Virginia, in May of 1988, and grew up in nearby Virginia Beach. His father was a Church of God in Christ minister, and he grew up surrounded by gospel music. His introduction to opera came as he attended the Governor's School for the Arts in Norfolk, and a class trip took him to the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Back at the Governor's School, Liverman had the opportunity to participate in concerts, recitals, and even fully staged operas. He attended Wheaton College in Illinois, majoring in music, and he later settled in the Chicago area. Liverman earned a master's degree from the Juilliard School in New York and had further training as a Young Artist at New York's Glimmerglass Festival and Chicago's Ryan Opera Center. Among his specialties is the role of Figaro in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, which he has performed at the Seattle Opera, Virginia Opera, and Kentucky Opera. Liverman has also performed in such roles as Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute (with the Florentine Opera and Central City Opera), Silvio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (at the Colorado Opera), and Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème (at the Santa Fe Opera, Dallas Opera, and Opera Philadelphia).

Liverman has also appeared in many productions of contemporary opera, including those of Nico Muhly's Marnie and Philip Glass' Akhnaten at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the latter marking the company's premiere of the work. He has begun to find roles in new works that draw on African American subjects and traditions, originating the role of jazzman Dizzy Gillespie in Daniel Schnyder's opera Charlie Parker's Yardbird, reprising the role at the English National Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and at the Apollo Theater, among other venues. In fall 2021, he was slated to star at the Met in jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard's opera, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, and to perform later in the season in Akhnaten and The Magic Flute. Liverman has also composed an opera, The Factotum, in collaboration with DJ K-Rico, and is developing it at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and its Ryan Opera Center. He has performed in concert works, including Handel's Messiah (with the Seattle Symphony), Orff's Carmina Burana (with the Virginia Symphony), and Mozart's Mass in C minor, K. 427, with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Liverman made his recording debut in 2020 with Whither Must I Wander, a multinational song recital released on the Odradek label. He moved to the Cedille label in 2021 for Dreams of a New Day: Songs of Black Composers. Liverman has received several important prizes, including the Richard Tucker Career Grant (2019), the Sphinx Medal of Excellence (2019), the Marian Anderson Vocal Award (2020).

TRACKLIST

1. Will Liverman - Morning
2. Lauren Snouffer;Will Liverman - A Golden Day
3. Will Liverman;Martin Luther Clark - The Lesson
4. Will Liverman - Life's Tragedy
5. Lauren Snouffer;Will Liverman - A Prayer
6. Will Liverman;Lady Jess - Sonnet
7. Mykal Kilgore;Will Liverman - Night
8. Joshua Blue;Will Liverman - A Threefold Heart: I. Love and The Butterfly
9. Isabel Leonard;Will Liverman - A Threefold Heart: II. If I Had Known
10. Will Liverman;Lindsey Sharpe - A Threefold Heart: III. A Love Song
11. Erin Morley;Will Liverman - Farewell
12. Will Liverman - Emancipation
13. Will Liverman;Ann Toomey - Hymn
14. Will Liverman;Jacqueline Echols - A Plaint
15. Adam Richardson;Will Liverman - To The Negro Farmers of the United States
16. Will Liverman;Lady Jess - Good-night