William Socolof

William Socolof is an award-winning operatic bass-baritone and recitalist.  He has appeared as a soloist with many premier North American orchestras including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra amongst others.  He was a winner of the 2020 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions. The New York native was graduated from The Juilliard School in spring 2022 with an Artist Diploma in Opera Studies and was awarded The Stephen Novick Grant for Career Advancement.  Thereafter, he attended the prestigious Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera, singing Riolobo in selections from Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas, as well as operatic scenes of Mozart and Berlioz with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. William Socolof joins Oper Köln’s Opernstudio from autumn 2023 and his diverse range of performances of the season include Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten by Attila Kadri Şendil, Romeo und Julia by Boris Blacher, Tosca, Pünktchen und Aton by Iván Eröd, and L’incoronazione di Poppea.  He was a member of the 2023 Verbier Festival’s Atelier Lyrique and sang the role of Father Truelove in a concert presentation of The Rake’s Progress with the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra conducted by James Gaffigan. William Socolof debuted with the National Symphony Orchestra in Bernstein’s Mass led by James Gaffigan and recent performance highlights also include Vaughan Williams’ Sir John in Love with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra at the Bard Music Festival, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, Op. 80 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Andris Nelsons, Barber’s Dover Beach, Op. 3 with the Borromeo String Quartet at Carnegie Hall, and performances with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under the auspices of The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society in collaboration with Barbara Hannigan and Richard Egarr. Operatic appearances have included Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte at Juilliard in a production conducted by alumnus Nimrod David Pfeffer and directed by David Paul as well as the role of Daniel Webster in Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a part of Project 19, the New York Philharmonic’s multi-season initiative marking the centennial of the 19th Amendment, which guarantees women the right to vote in the United States. During the summers of 2019, 2020, and 2021, he was a resident artist at the storied Marlboro Music Festival and performed extensively works of Bach, Brahms, Mahler, and Schubert with pianists Jonathan Biss, Malcolm Martineau, and Mitsuko Uchida. A fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival in the summer of 2018, and under the tutelage of Sanford Sylvan, Dawn Upshaw, and Stephanie Blythe, William Socolof appeared with the Boston Pops, performed Bach Cantatas conducted by John Harbison, and premiered works by Michael Gandolfi and Nico Muhly in partnership with pianist Emmanuel Ax. William Socolof has received prizes from The Naumburg Foundation, Young Concert Artists, International Auditions, Oratorio Society of New York Lynn Woodside Competition, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Laffont Competition. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School (B.M.’18, M.M.’20, ADOS ‘22) studying with Sanford Sylvan and William Burden.