Sir Willard Wentworth White, OM, CBE was born on 10 October 1946 and is a Jamaican-born British operatic bass baritone.
17 Facts About Willard White
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Willard White's father was a dockworker, his mother a housewife.
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Willard White first began to learn music by listening to the radio and singing Nat King Cole songs.
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Willard White was inspired by the American bass baritone singer and civil rights activist Paul Robeson.
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Willard White was a founding member of The Jamaican Folk Singers, and trained at the Jamaican School of Music.
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Willard White won a scholarship and continued his studies with bass Giorgio Tozzi at the Juilliard School.
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In May 1971, Willard White made his debut as the runaway slave Jim in the Juilliard American Opera production of Hall Overton's opera Huckleberry Finn.
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Willard White next appeared with New York City Opera in 1974 as Colline in La boheme.
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Willard White has since sung at the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Opera Bastille, the opera houses of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and the major European cities as well as the Festivals at Glyndebourne, Aix-en-Provence, Verbier, and Salzburg.
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Willard White's voice was heard as one of the operatic soloists in the Academy Award-winning motion picture Amadeus.
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Willard White has starred in non-singing roles, such as a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Othello, with Ian McKellen as Iago and Imogen Stubbs as Desdemona.
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Willard White appeared with Cantamus Girls Choir in Harrogate in 2004.
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Willard White has sung the role of Vodnik in Antonin Dvorak's opera Rusalka several times, including in a Stefan Herheim production in 2012 at La Monnaie in Brussels and in 2004 at the Metropolitan Opera, New York.
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On 5 June 2019 at Portsmouth, during the ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings, Willard White interpreted in French the "Chant des Partisans", the most popular song of the Free French and French Resistance during World War II, in front of veterans and heads of state including Queen Elizabeth II, Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron.
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In 2022 Willard White sang the role of Count Monterone in Opera North's production of Rigoletto, directed by Femi Elufowoju jr.
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Willard White himself received the Gold Musgrave Medal of The Institute of Jamaica.
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In 2000, Willard White was awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit, then the third highest honour in the Jamaican honours system, for eminent international distinction in the performing arts.