William Hite has been described by The Boston Globe as "a breathtaking communicator;" the San Francisco Chronicle remarked that Hite in Purcell's King Arthur "lavished the music with considerable eloquence," and The Wall Street Journal deemed his Apollo in Monteverdi's Orfeo "outstanding." His reputation as an engaging and expressive artist has led to engagements with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the American Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Washington Bach Consort, New York City Ballet, National Arts Center Orchestra (Ottawa), Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Emmanuel Music, Tafelmusik and Philharmonia Baroque under the direction of Seiji Ozawa, Rafeal Frübeck de Burgos, Nicholas McGegan, Christopher Hogwood, Robert Spano, Grant Llewellyn, Leon Botstein, John Harbison, Craig Smith and Peter Schreier.
Mr. Hite's recent engagements include appearances with the Boston Symphony in Belioz L'Enfance du Christ, the role of the evangelist in the St. Matthew Passion with Boston's Cantata Singers, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Handel & Haydn Society, Messiah with the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Vaughan-Williams Hodie at Dartmouth University, Alexander's Feast with the Louisville Bach Society and Tippett's A Child of our Time with the Pioneer Valley Symphony.
The tenor's operatic credits include the title roles in The Rake's Progress, Acis and Galatea, Jephtha, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and Cavalli's L'Ormindo, as well the role of Roderick Usher in the world premiere of the Philip Glass opera The Fall of the House of Usher at the American Repertory Theater and the Kentucky Opera. He performed the role of Orfeo in Peri's Euridice with the Long Beach Opera and has been a regular at the Boston Early Music Festival in period stagings of Monteverdi and Rossi's Orfeo, Cavalli's Ercole amante and King Arthur. Additional operatic premieres include the works of Theodore Antoniou, Ellen Ruehr and Lew Spratlan.
Mr. Hite's extensive discography now contains over 30 recordings spanning a wide spectrum of musical idioms. His most recent release is The Astronaut's Tale by Charles Fussell on Albany Records. On the Koch label he may be heard in the St. John Passion with Emmanuel Music. He has also recorded the Mozart Requiem with Andrew Parrott for Denon and Handel's The Triumph of Time and Truth on the Centaur label. He is featured on numerous award winning CDs with the Boston Camerata as well as with the medieval ensemble Sequentia. William Hite has sung in music festivals at Tanglewood, Santa Fe, Monadnock, Banff and Vancouver as well as the Vermont Mozart Festival. In Europe he has performed at the Athens Festival, Academie Musicale in Sainte, Aix-en-Provence and the Holland Early Music Festival. He is a member of the voice faculty at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and Guest Artist at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.