Press Acclaim
The Dallas Morning News - December 2018
Soloist Katy Shackleton Williams leads the orchestra and choir well in many numbers with a light and airy soprano. With three costume changes and a bright, ringing tone, she brings poise and a Magic Kingdom-esque intrigue to the program. Her "Alleluja!" from Mozart's Exultate jubilate is lovely, and she leads the choir in a beautiful setting of "Angels We Have Heard on High." The concert calls on her more than half a dozen times, which is a tall order for any singer over two weekends of performances, and Williams delivers prettily with grace and aplomb.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - March 6, 2006
"…The beautifully sustained phrases of Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus” and ”Laudate Dominum”, featuring soprano Katy Shackleton Williams, perhaps the most versatile of Pittsburgh’s sopranos. Shackleton Williams continued her creamy phrasing and effortless control in the Requiem, Mozart."
Pittsburgh Tribune Review - December 3, 2004
"Denis Colwell, music director, of the brass band, says the numbers |Shackleton Williams is performing are well suited to her. “They will show her in her best advantage,” he says of the 1993 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University who worked with him and the school’s wind ensemble when she was there. “I have talked to several people who call her the best soprano in this town right now."
The Citizen’s Voice, Wilkes-Barre, PA -
November 12, 2012
"Williams was stunning in stage presence and vocal range. Her register is fully embodied with magnificent timbre. Her interpretation of “Laughing Song from Die Fledermaus” was alive and rang true with great clarity. Williams also shined during Luigi Arditi’s “Il Bacio” and Franz Lehar’s “Meine Lippen, sie kussen so heiss” from Giuditta."
The Citizens Voice, Wilkes-Barre, PA - December 5, 2005
"The Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic in conjunction with a number of local artistic troupes and the magnificent voice of Katy Shackleton Williams certainly made the Philharmonic concert “Home for the Holidays” a memorable one."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "Best Classical Performances of 2009" - December 17, 2009
"Rated #1! Music director Manfred Honeck has a predilection for Mahler that goes beyond the score, and his vision includes returning some of the style and substance of Mahler’s works for the time they were written. This concert brought this approach to Capital Symphony No.2, ”Resurrection,” staking out “uncommon dramatic territory for the symphony,” I wrote, such as having the strings play the second movement peasant waltz like a zither. Yet, it is the musicians who made this performance the touching affair that it was, including trumpeter George Vosburgh, trombone player Peter Sullivan, English horn player Harold Smoliar, soprano Katy Shackleton Williams and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong."
Pittsburgh Tribune Review - November 8, 2005
"Singer Katy Shackleton Williams commits a grand felony the way she steals the show in current concerts of the River City Brass Band. She does wonderful versions of five selections from Aaron Copeland’s “Old American Songs”. She also sings three George Gershwin, Tin Pan Alley songs, giving “my Cousin from Milwaukee” a great- and appropriate-humorous squawkiness."