Biography

A graduate of Magdalen College Oxford and Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, William Purefoy was a finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, a winner of the NFMS Young Concert Artists Award and also a winner of the Silver Medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians. With an established reputation in the UK, including performances with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Hanover Band, English Concert and The Sixteen, William Purefoy is also frequently to be seen internationally with concerts, recitals and operatic appearances in New Zealand, America, France, Austria, Germany and Switzerland, and his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2008.

His international engagements have included MAN 2 Cafe Kafka at Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia (Valencia), TRUTH Triumph of Time and Truth/Triumph of Beauty and Deceit in Kahlsruhe, a new play Le 6ème Continent at the Bouffes du Nord in Paris, ARSAMENE Serse for New Zealand Opera, OTTONE L’Incoronazione di Poppea for Theater Basel, PTOLEMY Guilio Cesare and DR NICE Evening Hymn for Staatsoper Hannover and HAMOR Jephthe for the Boston Handel and Haydn Society while highlights of his UK appearances include MAN 2 Cafe Kafka and POPE/SURGEON The Commission Opera North, Aldeburgh Music and Linbury Studio Covent Garden, XERXES and ORLANDO for Iford Arts, APOLLO in Mozart’s Apollo and Hyacinth for Opera Theatre Company and Classical Opera Company, ASCANIO Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba and the Handel roles ATHAMAS Semele, LYCHAS Hercules, ARSACE Partenope and HAMOR Jephthe for Buxton Festival. In addition he appeared as ERNESTO Il Mondo Della Luna for Garsington Opera, while for Scottish Opera he sang ANDRONICO Tamerlano and ANTONIO Gesualdo and he has appeared frequently at Shakespeare's Globe including new plays Farinelli and the King by Claire Van Kampen, Gabriel by Samuel Adamson and Thomas Tallis by Jessica Swale. He also performs with vocal groups I Fagiolini and Theatre of Voices. He has also recently rejoined the vocal group Cantabile - The London Quartet.

His many recordings to date have included The Mask of Moments (Theatre of the Ayre - Elizabeth Kenny/Linn), Bach Lutheran Mass Volumes I and II (The Sixteen/Coro), Desyatnikov The Leaden Echo (Quartz), Pärt Stabat Mater (Theatre of Voices/Harmonia Mundi), Buxtehude Scandinavian Cantatas (Theatre of Voices/Da Capo), Vaughan-Williams Mass in G Minor (Hickox/Chandos), Boyce’s Ode for Saint Cecilia's Day and David's Lamentation Over Saul and Jonathan (Hanover Band/ASV Gaudeamus), Rosie Blood (John Harle Terror and Magnificence/Decca Argo) and the role of SPIRIT Dido and Aeneas (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Chandos). He was featured in the television series In Search of Shakespeare and the film Young Victoria and has given recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Barbican and Purcell Room as well as in Innsbruck, Graz and Radovljica.