William
Cotten
Voice
William Cotten, tenor, has been a soloist throughout New England, including performances with Banchetto Musicale, Boston Music Theatre Project, New Hampshire Symphony, The Friends of Dr. Burney, Dartmouth Handel Society, Milford Symphony, Monadnock Music, Indian Hill Orchestra, Nashua Symphony Choral Society, Hampshire Choral Society, as well as Wolf Trap Opera, Breckenridge Music Institute of Colorado, June Opera Festival of New Jersey, Augusta Opera, PepsiCo Summerfare, and Underground Opera of Connecticut.
His operatic portrayals have included such roles as Albert Herring, Monostatos in The Magic Flute, Alfredo in Die Fledermaus, Francis Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Erice in Cavalli's L'Ormindo, Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw, and Don Curzio in The Marriage of Figaro with Boston Opera Theater, directed by Peter Sellars. This production was filmed in Vienna, aired on PBS's Great Performances, and performed at the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona, as well as in Paris. He was a soloist with Emmanuel Music, conducted by Craig Smith, in performances of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with the Mark Morris Dance Group, as well as concerts of music by Bach and Schütz in Brussels, Belgium.
He was heard in Honegger's King David at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and in the world premiere of Phillip Glass and Robert Moran's The Juniper Tree at the American Repertory Theater. Mr. Cotten won third place in the Metropolitan Opera New England Regional Auditions, and was awarded a Fellowship to the Tanglewood Music Center. He sang with Opera to Go of Young Audiences of Massachusetts, winners of the National General Electric/Young Audiences Artists Award, and served on the Board of Directors of the Boston Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) as Membership Chair and Song Festival Co-Chair. He presently is the NATS Massachusetts District Governor.
Cotten is presently on the faculties of the New England Conservatory, The Boston Conservatory, and the New England Conservatory Continuing Education and Preparatory School, where he was co-chair of the voice department. He taught at the University of Massachusetts/Boston, where he was director of the Voice Division, and was the faculty advisor for the New England Conservatory Light Opera Club. He received a Bachelors in Music Education from Mississippi State University and a Masters in Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. He studied voice with Lucy Phillips, Mark Pearson, and Susan Clickner, coached with Angela Vanstory Ward, Terry Decima, John Moriarty, Margo Garrett, and Dennis Helmrich, took part in master classes with Phyllis Curtin, William Warfield, and Gerard Souzay, and was directed by Peter Sellars, Andrei Serban, John Moriarty, Leon Major, and Linda Brovsky.
His students have sung on Broadway and numerous national tours and summer stock companies, have been soloists with the Boston Pops, Chautauqua Opera, Sarasota Opera, Emmanuel Music, Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Chorus Pro Musica, Masterworks Chorale, Boston Cecelia Society, Granite State Opera, Dartmouth Handel Society, Carmel Bach Festival, and the American Repertory Theater. They have won prizes at the Liederkranz Auditions, Metropolitan Opera New England Regional Auditions, Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition, Bethlehem Bach Competition, Lotte Lenya/Kurt Weill Competition, and the NATS Boston Chapter Song Festival, and have been accepted to the Tanglewood Music Center, Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, Aspen Opera Theater Program, the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria, and the Young Artist Program of the Chicago Opera Theater.
B.M.Ed., Mississippi State University; M.M., NEC. Voice with Susan Clickner, Mark Pearson, Lucy Phillips; masterclasses with Phyllis Curtin, Gerard Souzay, William Warfield; coachings with Angela Vanstory Ward, John Moriarty, Dennis Helmrich, Terry Decima, Margo Garrett; directed by Peter Sellars, Andrei Serban, John Moriarty, Leon Major, and Linda Brovsky. Also faculty of Boston Conservatory.
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