William Towers read English at Cambridge University and was a postgraduate scholar at the Royal Academy of Music where, graduating with Distinction, he was awarded several prizes for singing and acting, including the Dip.RAM and the Clifton prize for the finest Final Recital. In his first year after leaving the Academy he appeared extensively as a soloist in Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, including appearances in the Berlin Philharmonie, the Dijon Auditorium, the Metz Arsenal, Buckingham Palace and the final concerts in New York. His performances in the complete Bach Cantata series have been issued on CD.
His opera engagements have included Ottone L’incoronazione di Poppea for Oper Franfkurt and Teatro Real Madrid, Medoro Orlando and Farnace Mitridate Re di Ponto for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Oberon A Midsummer Night’s Dream with John Eliot Gardiner and David Pountney for Teatro La Fenice Venice and with Richard Hickox at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre as well as for Staatsoper Hannover, Voice of Apollo Death in Venice directed by Keith Warner, Agripinna, Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso and Egio Teseo for Oper Frankfurt, Mago Cristiano Rinaldo for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Poro and Orlando (title roles) at the Göttingen Handel Festival with Konrad Junhänel, Giulio Cesare for Gothenburg Opera with Laurence Cummings, Death in Venice for La Monnaie Brussels, Canadian Opera Company and in Prague, Ottone Ottone and La Guiditta at the Casa da Musica Porto, Orfeo Orfeo (Gluck) with Opera North in Monte-Carlo, Death in Venice for the Aldeburgh and Bregenz Festivals, Playing Away for Bregenz Festival and Festpielhaus St Pölten, Ottone L’incoronazione di Poppea and Orlando for Opera Theatre Company, Lotario Lotario for the London Handel Festival, Eustazio Rinaldo for Grange Park Opera, Sorceress Dido and Aeneas with Paul McCreesh, Lance in the premiere of Paul Frehner’s Sirius on Earth for the Almeida Festival, Innocent in the revival of Birtwistle’s Minotaur at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Visitor/Lover Sciarrino for Music Theatre Wales.
His oratorio and recital schedule has featured appearances in many major venues and festivals in the UK and abroad, including Symphony Hall Birmingham, Barbican Hall, Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms, the Gro_es Festspielhaus Salzburg, Konzerthaus Vienna, National Auditorium Madrid, Three Choirs Festival, Ravenna Festival, Flanders Early Music Festival, the Festivale de Musique Ancienne de Lyon and La Chaise Dieu with distinguished conductors such as Sir Roger Norrington, Paul McCreesh, Robert King, Emmanuelle Haïm, Barry Wordsworth, Stephen Layton and Jeffrey Skidmore. Orchestras he has worked with include the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, The King’s Consort, Gabrieli Consort and Players, Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, The Sixteen, Le Concert d’Astrée, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Bach Society, Amarillis, Concordia and Abendmusik. He has sung Orlando and Belshazzar in the US with Nicholas McGegan and Philharmonia Baroque. His recordings include Handel’s Messiah, Purcell’s Fairy Queen, Bach’s St. Mark Passion and Orff’s Carmina Burana for BBC television.