Bill McMurray

Baritone

Biography

With more than 30 operatic roles to his credit, baritone Bill McMurray has been described by the Durham Herald Sun as a “baritone with warm, rich tones and superb stage presence”. Such roles include Figaro in Il baribiere di Sivigila, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro and Escamillo in Carmen. For the 2019 season, Bill opens with The New Philharmonic in a Showboat and Showtunes concert with maestro Kirk Muspratt. He next opens Chicago Opera Theater’s season in his first major Russian role as Ibn Hakia in Tchaikovsky’s opera Iolanta. He debuts with the Illinois Philharmonic as the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah, then returns to Chicago Opera Theater in the winter for the Midwest premiere of Stefan Weisman’s opera The Scarlet Ibis. Finally, he will debut with the symphony orchestra at the University of Chicago as the bass soloist in Michael Tippett’s oratorio A Child of Our Time.

Other recent engagements include his first Germont in Verdi’s La Traviata with Harbor Country Opera in Three Oaks, Michigan, concerts with the New Philharmonic Orchestra in Glen Ellyn, and the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Elmhurst Orchestra and Choral Society. Additionally, he sang the role of Mr. Greatorex with Chicago Opera Theater in the world premiere opera Elizabeth Cree, then returned to Summer Garden Opera in Virginia to reprise the role of Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Walter Martini of the New Buffalo Times reviewed his performance of Marcello in Puccini’s La Boheme, saying he was “a powerful actor who brings great elegance to the role. His singing is as fine as anything being heard in major opera houses today.”

Bill sang the lead role of Prospero in Lee Hoiby’s The Tempest with Longleaf Opera in North Carolina, while the composer himself was in attendance and received outstanding reviews for his performance. He has sung with noted companies like Florida Grand Opera, Opera North, Knoxville Opera, The Opera Company of North Carolina, Mobile Opera, Opera Carolina, Central City Opera and Opera on the James. Mr. McMurray has also performed several times with the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Opera in the Neighborhoods outreach operas. Bill sang the lead role in the Chicago premiere of Der Kaisser von Atlantis at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion with the New Millennium Orchestra under the baton of Francesco Milioto.

Mr. McMurray was also a featured soloist in Florence and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Italy with the combined choirs of St. John Cantius Church and St. Joseph College. Other engagements include Jake in Skylight Opera Theater’s Porgy and Bess, the role of Dr. Dulcamara in l’elisir d’amore with Summer Garden Opera in Virginia, solo performances with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Skokie Valley Symphony and Chicago Arts Orchestra. In the summer of 2017, at the Ravinia Festival, he was the bass soloist in the final movement of Haydn’s The Creation, conducted by former Metropolitan Opera Music Director, James Levine.

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Reviews

“Company regular Bill McMurray was well suited to the role of Father. The burly singer was a strong yet sensitive paternal figure, his baritone warm yet pliant in his solo moments.”

Lawrence A. Johnson, Chicago Classical Review
The Scarlet Ibis – 2019

“We have been continuously delighted and impressed with the talent of baritone Bill McMurray. His sturdy baritone is capable of a range of color that bordered on fearsome as Ibn-Hakia in Iolanta earlier this season but was warm and paternal in this role. He portrayed the role of Father with pathos, dignity, and an uncanny honesty. Each time Mr. McMurray went to his shop, it brought tears to our eyes, either from sadness or gladness. His “Coffin” aria was heart wrenching in the direct simplicity of a father’s pain. In his “Red Wagon” aria, McMurray perfectly captures a simple working man’s determination to make his son’s life better than his own.”

William and Margaret Swain, Buzznews.net
The Scarlet Ibis – 2019

“It is on this ramp that we see the studied slow motion plodding walk of the father (Bill McMurray) to build a coffin for his newborn deformed son, that speaks to the moment’s sorrow as powerfully as his stop-you-in-your-tracks voice. It is here also that we see the indignity of death for The Scarlet Ibis as she is prodded with stick to her grave.”

Amy Munice, Picture This Post
The Scarlet Ibis – 2019

“Company regular Bill McMurray brought an authoritative bass-baritone and dignified presence to Ibn-Hakia, the holistic physician who communicates the secret of restoring Iolanta’s vision.”

Lawrence A. Johnson, Chicago Classical Review
Iolanta – 2019

“Bill McMurray, as Dr. Ibn Hakla, delivered a slightly more dramatic sound which suited the mystically transcendental requirements of that role. His aria was vocally spectacular, even if the staging was somewhat obtuse.”

William and Margaret Swain, Buzznews.net
Iolanta – 2019

“As Marcello…Bill McMurray…gave the audience some terrific singing. Chicago baritone Bill McMurray gives a wonderfully individual interpretation of the painter Marcello. Having sat through scores of performances of blustery, barking Marcellos, this reviewer found it refreshing to hear this role actually sung and not shouted. McMurray is a powerful actor and brings great elegance to the role. His singing is as fine as anything being heard in major opera houses today. One hopes to hear more of him in this area.”

Walter Martini, New Buffalo Times
La Boheme – 2013

“Baritone Bill McMurray gave a solid account of this psycho-musical study of love and loss, intelligently limning the labile emotional shifts of “Ich hab’ ein glühend’ Messer” and providing some deftly floated pianissimos.”

Mark Thomas Ketterson, Concertonet.com
Songs of a Wayfarer – 2008

“Bill McMurray imbues the lusty Count with a surprising amount of sex appeal…”

D.L. Groover, Houston Press
Marriage of Figaro – 2007

Dear Bill,
Once more, let me thank you for a most beautiful creation of my Prospero. I would love to have you sing the enclosed, and will recommend you any time I have the chance.

Sincerely,

Lee