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Biography

Described by the Washington Post as “silvery of voice” and “a showstopper” for her recent performances with Washington National Opera as The Rose in The Little Prince and The Flamingo in the world premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s The Lion, the Unicorn and Me, soprano Lisa Williamson is a versatile singer who has forged a diverse career that has taken her around the world from Muscat, Oman to the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall to the Indianapolis Brickyard.

 

In the 2023-24 season, she appears as a featured soloist in Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Hartt School of Music Foot in the Door Ensemble, with the WVU Wind Symphony in John Mackey and A.E. Jacques’s Songs from the End of the World. She returns to the New Haven Symphony Orchestra to sing spirituals by Margaret Bonds in “Harlem Renaissance: Orchestral Voices” and returns to Brief Cameo Productions at the Ivoryton Playhouse as Sharon in Terrence McNally’s Masterclass having previously sung Sarah in their inaugural production of Ragtime in Concert. In recent seasons she took the stage with the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra in “Ella & Gershwin by the Shore,” with the Missoula Symphony Orchestra singing Mozart’s Requiem, and joined the Hartford Symphony Orchestra for Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Carmina Burana. She created the role of Bessie Coleman, the first black American female pilot, in the world-premiere production of Douglas Buchanan and Caitlin Vincent's Prize-Winning opera Bessie and Ma, returned to the New Haven Symphony stage for the stratospheric soprano solos in Carmina Burana. On the opera stage she was featured in Portland Opera’s double bill of The Difficulty of Crossing a Field and the little match girl passion, singing Virginia Creeper and the soprano soloist, as Laurie in The Tender Land with Hartford Opera Theater in partnership with the American School for the Deaf, in which she not only sang but also communicated using American Sign Language, as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady and as a soloist in An Evening of Rodgers and Hammerstein with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra Pops, L’Elisir d’amore, Die Fledermaus, and La Bohème with Opera Theater of Connecticut, the little match girl passion with The Glimmerglass Festival, The Music Man at the Royal Opera House, Muscat in Oman, and Wonderful Town with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, Italy.

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photo by CS Marchand

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photo by Arielle Doneson

Ms. Williamson is a dedicated recitalist with a passion for American repertoire, from Songbook to art song, with a special emphasis on works by women and African-American composers. She was a Marc and Eva Stern Fellow at the United States’ premiere art song festival, Songfest, where she worked with composers Jake Heggie, Libby Larsen, and John Musto, and presented the world premiere of James Primosh’s song “Shadow Memory.” In 2013 she performed in The Song Continues with Marilyn Horne, the Weill Music Institute’s Professional Training Program at Carnegie Hall and in 2017 she curated and presented a solo recital of art song with text by Harlem Renaissance writers at The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale in collaboration with the exhibit, "Gather Out of Star-Dust." Williamson is a founding member of the Bassless Trio, a first-of-its-kind chamber ensemble made up of soprano voice, cello, and saxophone. The group made its debut in 2018, premiering six new works written for them and has performed throughout Connecticut and New York. 

 

From 2005-2010, Ms. Williamson was the vocal soloist with The United States Coast Guard Band. In her more than two hundred performances with the Coast Guard Band she performed in thirty-four states in the U.S. and throughout Japan singing a variety of repertoire from opera arias to the American Songbook, and twice performing the National Anthem at the Indianapolis 500 for live audiences of over 400,000 and millions on television worldwide. 

Ms. Williamson teaches voice at the University of Connecticut and has previously held appointments at Eastern Connecticut State and Southern Connecticut State Universities. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Connecticut, a Master of Music in voice from the Yale School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music in voice performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University. The daughter of premiere military band musicians, Lisa is a native of Alexandria, Virginia. She now makes her home in Connecticut with her husband, Commander Adam Williamson, the director of the United States Coast Guard Band, and their son.

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