This is a temporary site, biography and a small selection of music links below. A more comprehensive one will be up and running later this year.
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| SELECTED LISTENING | FILM & TV |
CHINA'S TERRACOTTA ARMY (BBC TV 2007) BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Chris Austin Wars Pastorale Tomb Landscape (Opening titles) Museum |
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| TROUBLE IN AMISH PARADISE (BBC TV 2008) Nick Gethin, cello Titles Family Funeral Credits |
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| THE LIST (2006) (BASIC PICTURES USA/Warner Bros) film clips with electronic score starring Brad Dourif, Wayne Brady and Sidney Tamiia Poitier It's good Thai food (Final scene) |
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| A NEW YEAR AT KEW (2006)(BBC, 3rd series) Gerard McChrystal, sax Morning Evening Night | CONCERT WORKS |
STRING QUARTET no 4 (2009) Carducci String Quartet/Presteigne Festival 2009 First movement: Moderato flessibile - Vivace Second movement: Lento e calmo Finale: Allegro moderato - Allegro molto |
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| WINTER CHORALE (2006) Text from the Kyrie Eleison and Laurie Lee's Winter Landscape I Fagiolini with the Academy of Ancient Music, dir. Robert Hollingworth shortened version c.10mins | |||
| MIGRATIONS (1998) Amsterdam Sinfonietta Very short extract Whole work |
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| MAELIENYDD (2008) Presteigne Festival Orchestra/George Vass Extract |
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| DIES IRAE (1988) BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra Short extract Whole work RED KITE FLYING (2004) |
Gillian Keith (soprano)/Simon Lepper (piano) Poem by the composer Complete song Cantata: THE WAYS OF GOING (1990) |
James Meek (baritone) Sian Davies (oboe) members of The Chamber Music Company/ dir. composer Text from poems by Alun Lewis PART 1 only Prologue - Instrumental prelude - All Day It Has Rained - Oh Journeyman TE DEUM (1989) |
for three antiphonal choirs, chamber organ and trumpet Combined choirs of Omnes Gentes/Hoite Pruiksma recorded in Leeuwarden, Holland (poor sound quality) Extract |
| JIZO (2002) three portraits of Japanese childrens' deities New Art Trio (Belgium) Jizo Bozatsu Sendan Kendatsuba Kariteimo | |||
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Described by Yehudi Menuhin as a "master of intricate patterns and forms" Adrian Williams was born in Hertfordshire in 1956 and showed precocious talent at the piano as a young child. He began composing at the age of eleven, his early promise resulting in consultations with Lennox Berkeley followed by composition and piano studies at the Royal College of Music where his teachers included Bernard Stevens, Alan Ridout and John Lill. During his RCM studies Williams received recognition for his first mature orchestral work, the gritty and ambitious Symphonic Studies, an achievement acknowledged by the RCM director Sir David Willcocks who conducted the work with the RCM orchestra. His final year at the College were marked by two accolades, a Leverhulme scholarship and the coveted Menuhin Prize for Composition. The years that followed saw a period as Composer in Residence at Charterhouse School during which his music underwent a stylistic reassessment. The outcome was a tougher harmonic language that although more adventurous in its range and scope, retained an underlying melodic vein that has always remained central to his music. Several important works were to emerge from this period including the Second String Quartet, a remarkable uninterrupted span of thirty eight minutes and in 1982, the intricately orchestrated symphonic poem Tess. In 1982 a move to the Welsh Borders saw Williams find his spiritual home, along with the peace of mind and creative impetus for many of his most vital works. Amongst them is the piece spawned by his winning the Guinness Prize for Composition in 1985, the cantata after Louis MacNeice Not Yet Born, Images of a Mind for cello and piano, the Cantata after Alun Lewis The Ways of Going and Dies Irae, the latter a BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra commission that in its power of expression, recalls the Sinfonia da Requiem of Britten, a composer that remains one of Williams' most significant influences. It was during his early years in the Welsh borders that Williams became the founding light of the Presteigne Festival, an enterprising event that continues to thrive and maintains a strong commitment to contemporary music. The multi-faceted, even eclectic nature of Adrian Williams' music has also seen him forge a successful career in music for film and television, a field he continues to be active in, whilst his absorption of influences as diverse as English song and elements of jazz and minimalism has seen his catalogue of major works grow to demonstrate a richly compelling creative voice. Ever searching for new creative horizons, Williams' recent scores, including Maelienydd (2008) for Chamber Orchestra and the String Quartet no 4, premiered to acclaim at the 2009 Presteigne Festival, exhibit a deeply felt emotional core, conjuring with the atmosphere and wild, open spaces of the composer's Welsh Borderland surroundings with a renewed sense of wonder and mystery. The Cello Concerto (2009) marks the culmination of Adrian Williams' long standing relationship with Raphael Wallfisch, an ardent champion of the composer's works for cello who also gave the first performance of his Spring Requiem in 1993. Christopher Thomas © |