WILLIAM WARFIELD
Baritone Soloist
Acclaimed throughout the world as one of the great vocal artists of our times, William Warfield is a star in every field open to a singer's art. Since Warfield's remarkable debut, his career has flourished in a wide assortment of memorable achievements, including the feature role of Joe, the dock hand, in the most recent film version of the great Edna Ferber-Jerome ern musical "Showboat". "Showboat" turned out to be the biggest Hollywood box office success of 1951. Warfield's singing of "Old Man River" produced spontaneous applause from movie audiences everywhere and was included on the "Showboat" album as well as in the movie "That's Entertainment" as one of the greatest moments in MGM musical history.
William Warfield was born in West Helena, Arkansas on January 22, 1920, the eldest of five sons. While still a small child, his father, Robert E. Warfield, decided to move his family north to Rochester, New York in order to seek better educational and employment opportunities. After diligent study, Robert Warfield founded and led the Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Rochester until his death in 1966. From the earliest days of the Mount Vernon Baptist Church, William and his brothers sang in the choir as boy sopranos. During his adolescence, William turned to the piano while his voice changed. Once into high school, William's voice completed its transition to bassbaritone. The school's music director, Elsa Miller (herself a pupil of the famous Metropolitan tenor Jean deResjke) recognized Warfield's vocal and musical talent and encouraged him throughout high school. With her support, Warfield entered the National Music Educators League Competition during his senior year in high school and won first place in the National Finals. The award was a scholarship to any American music school of his choice. Warfield chose the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. There he earned a Bachelor of Music and, after four interim years in the military, he returned to study for his Masters.
Barely out of uniform, Warfield was engaged for the singing lead in the national touring company of the Broadway hit "Call Me Mister". After a full year touring the country in "Call Me Mister", Warfield was able to further his career as an actor with appearances on Broadway in Dorothy Heyward's "Set My People Free" and the Marc Blitzstein opera "Regina" (based on Lillian Hellman's play "The Little Foxes"). Just as he had helped support himself in Rochester during his years at Eastman by acting in radio plays and singing in local churches and synagogues, Warfield supplemented his income in New York by performing in East Coast night clubs.
In
On Sunday afternoon, March 19, 1950, in New York's Town Hall, Warfield launched a new career in concert performance with a critically acclaimed concert debut. The last 42 years have witnessed countless concerts, recitals, solo appearances with symphony orchestras and performances as a non-singing narrator. Among Warfield's frequent performances abroad are six tours for the U.S. Department of State, more than any other artist. Mr. Warfield has performed as soloist with famous festivals from Athens, Greece to the Hollywood Bowl. The late Pablo Casals selected Warfield for the featured solo role in his own oratorio "El Pesebre" ("The Manager") for its debut performance at the Festival Casals in Puerto Rico and its American premier at Carnegie Hall in New York. "El Pesebre" was repeated with Warfield singing and Casals conducting with many symphony orchestras, including the Berlin, Athens, Geneva, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Omaha, as well as at the 20th anniversary of the United Nations at the General Assembly in New York with the American Symphony in 1965.
Through the years, critics have commented that William Warfield's superiority as a recitalist stems from his unusual ability as an actor, which he has proven often in singing roles as well as spoken parts. His most famous role is that of Porgy in George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess". One critic wrote, "It is a tragedy that Gershwin couldn't have lived to see and hear Warfield's Porgy." There is an outstanding recording of Great Scenes from "Porgy and Bess" available from RCA starring Warfield and Leontyne Price for which the artists were nominated for a Grammy Award.
Mr. Warfield has received numerous honors and awards including honorary doctorates from Lafayette University (Easton, PA), Augustana College (IL), James Millikin University (IL), and the University of Arkansas. Mr. Warfield was particularly pleased with this last honor since he felt that he had "come full circle" to his home state. In 1984, Mr. Warfield won a Grammy Award for "the spoken word" category for his outstanding narration of Aaron Copland's "A Lincoln Portrait" accompanied by the Eastman Philharmonia Orchestra, currently in release under the Mercury-Phillips label.
In 1975 Mr. Warfield accepted an appointment as Professor of Music at the University of Illinois. His responsibilities expanded in 1984 when he became Chair of the Voice Department. Mr. Warfield retired from the University in 1990 but has not slowed his pace as he continues to fulfill the many requests he receives to teach master classes and perform as a singer, actor, narrator, and jazz musician.