Described by the Washington Post as “silvery of voice” and “a showstopper” for performances with Washington National Opera as The Rose in The Little Prince and The Flamingo in the world premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s The Lion, the Unicorn and Me, Lisa Williamson is a versatile soprano who has forged a career that has taken her around the world from Muscat, Oman to the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall to the Indianapolis Brickyard.
Williamson is a sought-after guest soloist with recent performances including Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with the Missoula Symphony Orchestra, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with both the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and the Hartt School of Music’s Foot in the Door Ensemble, and Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Hartford Symphony. She has also appeared with the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra in Ella & Gershwin by the Shore and frequently collaborates with wind ensembles, most recently joining The United States Coast Guard Band at the 2024 Midwest Clinic in Henry Dorn’s I, Too, a piece she will reprise with the University of the Pacific Wind Bands in 2026. She has also sung with the West Virginia University Wind Symphony in John Mackey and A.E. Jacques’s Songs from the End of the World and joins the Ithaca College Wind Ensemble for Jim Stephenson's Symphony no. 2 "Voices."
On the opera stage she premiered the role of Bessie Coleman, based on the first black American female pilot, in the world-premiere production of Douglas Buchanan and Caitlin Vincent's prize-winning opera Bessie and Ma. Her opera and musical theater roles include Virginia Creeper in The Difficulty of Crossing a Field and soprano soloist in the little match girl passion with Portland Opera; Laurie in The Tender Land with Hartford Opera Theater in partnership with the American School for the Deaf, where she also performed in American Sign Language; leading roles in L’Elisir d’amore, Die Fledermaus, and La Bohème with Opera Theater of Connecticut; Le nozze di Figaro with Salt Marsh Opera; the little match girl passion with The Glimmerglass Festival; The Music Man at the Royal Opera House, Muscat in Oman; and Wonderful Town with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, Italy; Sharon in Master Class, Sarah in Ragtime, and Nurse in Sunday in the Park with George with Brief Cameo Productions at Ivoryton Playhouse.
Ms. Williamson is a dedicated recitalist with a passion for American repertoire, from Songbook to art song, with a special emphasis on works by women and Black American composers. She was a Marc and Eva Stern Fellow at the United States’ premiere art song festival, Songfest, where she presented the world premiere of James Primosh’s song “Shadow Memory,” and in 2017 she curated and presented a solo recital of art song with text by Harlem Renaissance writers at The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale in collaboration with the special exhibit, Gather Out of Star-Dust.
From 2005-2010, Ms. Williamson was the vocal soloist with The United States Coast Guard Band. In her more than two hundred performances with the Coast Guard Band she performed in thirty-four states in the U.S. and throughout Japan singing a variety of repertoire from opera arias to the American Songbook, and twice performing the National Anthem at the Indianapolis 500 for live audiences of over 400,000 and millions on television worldwide.
Ms. Williamson joined the Ithaca College faculty as as Assistant Professor of Voice in 2024. She has previously taught at the University of Connecticut, Eastern Connecticut State, and Southern Connecticut State Universities and has served as a music director for musicals presented by Trinity College Department of Theater and Dance. She was an inaugural fellow of the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Future of Music Faculty Fellowship and is a 2024 Teaching Intern with the National Association of Teachers of Singing. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Connecticut, a Master of Music in voice from the Yale School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music in voice performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University. The daughter of premiere military band musicians, Lisa is a native of Alexandria, Virginia and now divides her time between the Fingers Lakes and Eastern Connecticut, with her husband, Commander Adam Williamson, the director of the United States Coast Guard Band, and their son, Jack.