Nardus Williams, winner of the Rising Star award at the 2022 International Opera Awards, has quickly become one of the most exciting and versatile British singers of her generation. Praised for her ‘magnetism’ and ‘unobtrusive intimacy’ (The Arts Desk), she has ‘confirmed her place as an outstanding artist’ (Early Music Review).

In the 2025/26 season, she returns to the operatic stage to make her role debut in the title role of Partenope for English National Opera (ENO) under Christian Curnyn. Following her acclaimed performance as Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro last season for ENO, she reprises the role in a new production for Norwegian National Opera, under Ottavio Dantone. She also appears as Asteria in Tamerlano for the London Handel Festival under Laurence Cummings.

In concert, Nardus tours Handel’s Solomon with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, singing the role of Solomon’s Queen. She performs Messiah with the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Academy of Ancient Music, and Dunedin Consort, and joins the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland for Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri in the title role. Nardus also returns to ENO for Mozart’s Women, a concert celebrating the women in Mozart’s life, which will be filmed for Sky Arts.

Building on the success of her recital appearances at the BBC Proms and Snape Maltings, Nardus returns to Wigmore Hall on International Women’s Day with a new programme exploring the theme of ‘Women and Power’, in collaboration with Elizabeth Kenny and Dame Mary Beard. She also gives further recitals with Elizabeth Kenny at Leeds Song, Brighton Early Music Festival, Banbury Early Music Festival, and again at the Wigmore Hall.

Recent operatic highlights include the world premiere of George Lewis’ The Comet / Poppea as Poppea at MOCA in Los Angeles; Adina in L’elisir d’amore for Glyndebourne; Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni for Opéra de Rouen Normandie; Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress for the Glyndebourne Tour; Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte for English National Opera and Opera Australia; Countess in Le nozze di Figaro for Opera Holland Park, Glyndebourne, and English National Opera; and Belinda in the world premiere of Dido’s Ghost—a co-commission with the Dunedin Consort, Mahogany Opera, and the Barbican.

A prolific concert artist, Williams has sung Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Glyndebourne Sinfonia; Angelo in Handel’s La Resurrezione on tour with Le Banquet Céleste; Handel’s Gloria with Tonkünstler Orchestra at the Grafenegg Festival and with Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century at the Concertgebouw; Handel’s Brockes Passion with English Concert; Messiah with Philharmonia Orchestra and at BBC Proms with Academy of Ancient Music; the title role in Handel’s Esther at London Handel Festival; Fauré’s Requiem with Toronto Symphony Orchestra; Mozart’s Mass in C minor at BBC Proms, with NFM Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra, and with London Philharmonic Orchestra; Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D with BBC Symphony Orchestra; Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with London Philharmonic Orchestra and Hanover Band; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with The Hallé; Vivaldi’s Gloria with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Bach’s St John Passion and Handel’s Clori, Tirsi e Fileno with Dunedin Consort at Edinburgh International Festival; and Bach’s St Matthew Passion with The Bach Choir.

Other highlights include her appearance as soloist for The Rest is History podcast live on stage with orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall; a concert featuring arias from Handel’s Heroines in her Berlin Philharmonie debut with Academy of Ancient Music; and tours with Dunedin Consort, Europa Galante, and Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. Nardus’ debut album, Handel in Rome, featuring Handel’s Italian cantatas, recorded with Dunedin Consort under John Butt, was released on Linn Records in 2024 to great critical acclaim.

Nardus has made recital appearances at Wigmore Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Leeds Song, and Oxford International Song Festival. Alongside Elizabeth Kenny, she has recently performed at Wigmore Hall, LIFE Victoria Barcelona, the Tower of London for Spitalfields Music, and the Cambridge Music Festival. She continues to tour her recital programme I Never Laid Eyes on Aeneas…: Women’s Stories from the Ancient World alongside Dame Mary Beard and Elizabeth Kenny.

Nardus was a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio for the 2018/19 season and is a former Jerwood Young Artist at Glyndebourne and a former Harewood Artist at English National Opera. She trained at the International Opera School at the Royal College of Music, where she was the sole recipient of the prestigious Kiri Te Kanawa Scholarship.