American concert bass-baritone singer and actor William Warfield lived from 1920-2002. The Arkansas native’s family moved to Rochester, NY when he was a young child, and as a senior in high school, he won the National Music Educators League Competition and a full scholarship to any American music school of his choice. Mr. Warfield chose the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, where he received his bachelor’s (1942) and master’s degree. He also served his country for four interim years in the military intelligence division of the United States Army.
Today’s Beautiful Music features William Warfield singing the aria THE TRUMPET SHALL SOUND from George Frideric Handel’s oratorio MESSIAH. You can also watch Mr. Warfield’s 1976 performance at Royal Albert Hall as narrator of LINCOLN PORTRAIT by Aaron Copland, with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. (Mr. Warfield was the 1984 Grammy winner in the “Spoken Word” category for his narration of Lincoln Portrait.)