Will Liverman in Concert

Called “a voice for this historic moment” (Washington Post), GRAMMY Award-winning baritone Will Liverman is the recipient of the 2022 Beverly Sills Artist Award by The Metropolitan Opera and the co-creator of The Factotum – called “mic-drop fabulous good” (Opera News) – which premiered at the Lyric Opera Chicago in 2023. Described as “a gifted chameleon of a singing actor who disappears into his roles” (Opera) with a “beaming, high baritone that easily asserts” (LA Times), Liverman has been hailed by critics for his versatility in dramatic and comedic roles, as well as on concert stages in North America and internationally, and his dedication and vision as a composer, artist, and advisor helping to evolve and push the performing arts industry forward.

Following summer 2024 appearances at the BBC Proms in Britten’s War Requiem, Sibelius’s The Origin of Fire and Scriabin’s Prometheus, Poem of Fire led by Andris Nelsons at Tanglewood, and Aspen Music Festival’s Opera Benefit, Liverman reprises the iconic role of Papageno in the Metropolitan Opera’s holiday presentation of The Magic Flute, returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago as Marcello in La Bohème, and joins Dutch National Opera for another season, this time as Ned Keene in Peter Grimes. He makes his house debut during the 2024/2025 season at San Francisco Opera also portraying Marcello in Puccini’s La bohème.

Concert engagements include Kaija Saariaho’s Sombre at Carnegie Hall with the International Contemporary Ensemble; Carmina Burana with the San Francisco Symphony; London Symphony Orchestra led by Sir Antonio Pappano; works by Burleigh, Vaughan Williams, and Still at The Concertgebouw; works by Schubert, Burleigh, and Larsen with the Oxford International Song Festival; Brahms’ Requiem with the Rhode Island Philharmonic; Shawn Okpebholo’s Two Black Churches and Orff’s Carmina Burana with Oakland Symphony; a song cycle of his own compositions at National Sawdust; New York Festival of Song at Kaufman Music Center; and String Theory at the Hunter.

Lyric Opera of Chicago presented the world premiere of Liverman’s new opera, The Factotum, in 2023, which he starred in and composed with DJ King Rico. Inspired by Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Liverman and Rico place the story in a present-day Black barbershop on Chicago’s South Side, celebrating the strength of community and power of the human spirit in a soul opera that “offers a chameleonic pastiche of soul, funk, and classical elements that is incredibly effective” (Opera News). Houston Grand Opera, Portland Opera, and Washington National Opera are all slated to put on The Factotum in future seasons.

Recording projects include Liverman’s Show Me The Way (Cedille Records, 2024), a celebration of American song; Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers (Cedille Records, 2021), nominated for a GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album; The Dunbar/Moore Sessions – Volume I (Lexicon Classics, 2023), a collection of original art song composed, played, and sung by Liverman himself; and Whither Must I Wander (Odradek Records, 2020), named one of the Chicago Tribune’s “best classical recordings of 2020.”

Liverman is an alumnus of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and was a Glimmerglass Festival Young Artist. He holds degrees from The Juilliard School (M.M.) and Wheaton College in Illinois (B.M.). www.willliverman.com.

A recognized leader in chamber music and contemporary music advocacy, pianist Elizabeth G. Hill has led and performed in the Washington, DC area’s most prominent ensembles, and is known for her work as a performer, educator, and recording artist. A highly-regarded pianist, she has performed concerts and lecture-recitals across the United States and Europe, including the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the Center for Jewish History in New York, The Music Center in Los Angeles, and the Robert-Schumann-Haus in Zwickau, Germany. Her performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio, NPR, and PBS. She is highly sought-after as a collaborative artist and is the pianist for the National Philharmonic.

Elizabeth dedicates her career to bridging cultures together through music, and realizes this vision through her leadership within two prominent chamber ensembles. Her duo, Meraki, is dedicated to awakening cultural compassion through music. Meraki is an awardee of Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Program for their collaboration with composer, Jerod Tate. Elizabeth is also the pianist for Balance Campaign, a group whose focus lies exclusively on commissioning and performing works by marginalized composers. Balance Campaign is a recipient of Chamber Music America’s 2023 Classical Commissioning Grant for their collaboration with award-winning composer, Jeffrey Mumford. Elizabeth is also a private piano teacher, and a member of the Collaborative Piano Faculty at the Heifetz International Music Institute.

Raised in Anchorage, Alaska, Elizabeth holds degrees from Mary Baldwin College (B.A.), James Madison University (M.M.), and The Catholic University of America (D.M.A.).

American soprano Hallie Schmidt was a 2024-2025 Artist in Residence with Opera Colorado and a 2025 Apprentice Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera. This season, Hallie is engaged for two productions with Pacific Northwest Opera, including Handel’s Rinaldo as the sorceress Armida, and Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos as Zerbinetta. She has performed with Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Colorado, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Seattle Opera, Tacoma Opera, Pacific Northwest Opera, to name a few. Recent performances include Blonde in Die Entfürung aus dem Serail and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Pacific Northwest Opera, Frasquita in Tacoma Opera’s Carmen, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, and The Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute (filmed production) with Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Originally from Olympia, WA, Hallie received her Bachelor of Music from Oklahoma City University, and an Artist Diploma from William Jewell College. Hallie has received awards from the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Lotte Lenya Competition, the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, and the Seattle Opera Guild Singer Development Awards. This past season, she was also the second-place recipient in the Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition. During her residency at Opera Colorado in the 2024-2025 season, she covered Marie in Daughter of the Regiment and sang Inez in Il Trovatore. She is also a Co-Founder of Olympia Opera Theatre.

A student of legendary pianist and teacher Martin Katz, John completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Collaborative Piano at the University of Michigan in 2025, where he also received his Master of Music degree. He currently lives in Denver with his wife, dog, and cat, where he serves as the Artist in Residence Collaborative Pianist at Opera Colorado. Next season, he will be joining the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

John attended the Franz Schubert Institut in Baden bei Wien, a summer intensive focusing on the study of German art song, and he performed in the American Song Institute led by Thomas Hampson at the University of Michigan in 2022. Most recently, he was awarded the inaugural Collaborative Pianist Prize for the George Shirley Vocal Competition in 2025.

An Illinois native, John graduated from Northern Illinois University in 2018 with a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education. In 2017 his own composition, Piano Trio no. 1 “Greenwood”, won first prize in the Northern Illinois University Chamber Competition, and was recorded and featured on WNIU 97.9 Public Radio. Other recordings of his collaborative performances have been featured on songofamerica.net, as well as Iowa Public Radio.