Dr. William Martin, tenor, was reared in Wisconsin and received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Northwestern University School of Music. He supplemented his college training with opera apprenticeships at the Central City Opera and the Aspen Music Festival. As a professional in the Chicago area, he sang roles with the Chicago Opera Theater, the Grant Park Symphony, the Milwaukee Opera Company, the Light Opera Works of Evanston, and the Marriott Lincolnshire Dinner Theater. He recently sang the role of Alfredo in the Asheville Lyric Opera’s acclaimed production of Verdi’s La Traviata. In December he will reprise the role of King Kaspar in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors for the Asheville Lyric Opera. Other professional engagements have included four summer stock theater companies and the Ohio Light Opera Festival.

Dr. Martin won the Bel Canto Foundation Competition in Chicago, affording him the opportunity to study opera in Florence, Italy with the renowned baritone Tito Gobbi. He holds the Doctor or Musical Arts degree in vocal performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. A highlight of his residency in Greensboro was winning the Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions in North Carolina. Dr. Martin lived nine years in Germany, where he sang nearly 400 performances of leading operatic roles in theaters such as Mainz, Dortmund, Bremen, Muenster, and the Semper Oper in Dresden. Among his favorite roles were Hoffmann, Lenski, Alfredo, Pinkerton, Rodolfo and Lohengrin.

Martin has also been heard as tenor soloist in concerts and oratorios including Messiah, Haydn's Creation, Psalms 13 and 23 of Liszt, Puccini's Messa di Gloria, and the Requiems of Dvorak and Verdi. Dr. Martin has served on the faculties of Bethel College, Kent State University, and the Daytona Beach Community College. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Music at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. His teaching assignments include voice, class voice, diction, and music appreciation. He makes his home in Cullowhee, along with his wife, Cherry, and their daughter, Ariana.