Winner of both the 2025 Clare College Song Competition and the Donald Wort Prize for the highest final recital mark at the University of Cambridge, tenor Hugo Williamson has given recitals at Wigmore Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields and West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge.
Hugo is currently studying at the Royal College of Music, supported by an RCM Scholarship and the Countess of Munster Musical Trust. He is also an Emerging Artist with the Brighton Early Music Festival for 2026.
Opera & Theatre
In the 2026/27 season, Hugo makes two Purcell role debuts: The First Sailor in Dido and Aeneas with the VOCES8 Scholars Ensemble, O/Modernt and Hugo Ticciati, touring to the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg and Merano; and Mopsa and Fairy in The Fairy Queen with the Brighton Early Music Festival, London Handel Players and Adrian Butterfield. At the RCM, he covers La théière and joins the chorus in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges.
Previous operatic roles include Orpheus in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, Prologue/Peter Quint in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and The Madwoman in Britten’s Curlew River. His theatrical work includes The Narrator in Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale, The Governor in Gogol’s The Government Inspector, and The Narrator in Judith Weir’s Thread!.
Hugo Williamson was also first rate as the narrator. He captured perfectly the shifting moods between innocence and devilish guile while keeping in perfect time with the catchy, nerve jangling score.
The Cambridge Critique, 2026
Concert
Recent concert highlights include Evangelist in Bach’s St John Passion with St Neot’s Choral Society; selected arias from St John Passion with the Cambridge University Chamber Choir, directed by Nicholas Mulroy and featuring members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; and tenor soloist in Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Gounod’s St Cecilia Mass, Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Mozart’s Coronation Mass with Peterborough Choral Society, Slough Philharmonic, the Thomas Tallis Society and Wokingham Choral Society respectively.
Song
Hugo is an alumnus of the Cambridge University Lieder Scheme, directed by Joseph Middleton, which he attended for two consecutive years (2023–25). Through regular coaching with Joseph and masterclasses with Sir Thomas Allen, he has developed a particular interest in German and English song, performing regularly in Cambridge and London with recital partner Daniel Blaze.
Repertoire highlights include Finzi’s A Young Man’s Exhortation and Till Earth Outwears, Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge with piano quintet, and programmes of Schubert and Schumann Lieder. As part of the VOCES8 Scholars Programme, he recorded Michael Tippett’s Songs for Ariel with pianist Anna Tilbrook.
Consort & Choral Music
Hugo has extensive experience as a consort and ensemble singer. As a Lay Clerk at King’s College, Cambridge, he performed regularly with the choir, including solos in live broadcasts of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on BBC Radio and Carols from King’s on television.
He is an alumnus of the 14th Genesis Sixteen cohort, the 2025–26 VOCES8 Scholars Programme and the Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He has toured as an Emerging Artist with The King’s Consort and regularly works with the VOCES8 Foundation and Scholarship Ensemble, Hemiola and Lady Clare’s Consort. He is also a current choral scholar with the Thames Philharmonic Choir and Temple Church.