Adrian Williams' multi-faceted career was launched with his winning the Menuhin Prize at the age of 22. Considered a child-prodigy he gave piano recital performances, composed his first compositions at the age of 11 and had consultations with Lennox Berkeley in London. He went on to be a distinguished student of the Royal College of Music where he held a Leverhulme scholarship, studying with John Lill, John Russell, Bernard Stevens and Alan Ridout, and where his Symphonic Studies were conducted by the director of the RCM Sir David Willcocks. Further achievements followed; he became composer-in-residence at Charterhouse School, established the Presteigne International Festival in Wales, won the Guinness Prize and undertook many commissions.
In his early twenties his arranging ability was noticed first by renowned arranger/conductor Peter Knight who used Williams to orchestrate scores for classical pops and TV shows, and later by Carl Davis in Music for the Movies. This gave him an insight into film and television which has developed throughout his career.
His more serious works embrace a variety of genres and styles, yet, despite their diversity, share familial turns of melodic phrase and rhythmic gesture, together with a common generosity of spirit. The same tell-tale sound prints link and cross-reference scores as different as the tough Second String Quartet, the intricately orchestrated Tess, the diatonically revelling Spring Sonata for violin and harp, or the emotionally anguished Spring Requiem for cello and piano. Spring Requiem is included on a much acclaimed Metronome disc of cello works on which Raphael Wallfisch is partnered by the composer.
Adrian Williams has always enjoyed success as a pianist, and despite his heavy composition workload, he has always been busy as a concert artist, his astonishing improvisations in recitals being a speciality.
Despite a discerning ensemble catalogue (including the 1998 Chamber Concerto) and orchestral tours-de-force like the early Symphonic Studies and his BBC commission Dies Irae, (which gained him publication by Durand-Eschig, Paris) many consider Adrian Williams's vocal settings (to texts by, among others, W.H.Davies, Alun Lewis and Louis MacNeice) to be his most personal achievement. Springing from a deep love of 20th century British and Celtic romanticism in general, this music ties in well with the wild open countryside of Wales, where he lived from 1982, perhaps the single strongest influence within his creative world.
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Since 1999 he spent much of his time working in Japan, the beginning of which period was marked by his Migrations for 22 solo strings, which received great critical and public acclaim at its Amsterdam Concertgebouw premiere. Since returning from Japan in 2002 there have been commissions from I Fagiolini - Out In The Jungle (Cheltenham Festival) and Learning (The Sage Gateshead), The New Art Trio - Jizo (Gent Film Festival, Belgium), the Raphael Ensemble - Children of Baghdad (Presteigne Festival), soprano Gillian Keith and pianist Simon Lepper - Red Kite Flying (Presteigne Festival), the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Canada - Gershwin song arrangements arrangements for soprano Measha Bruggergosman and CBC records, Concordia - Teares to Dreames (Cheltenham Festival) and the BBC Young Artists ensemble the Galliard Wind Quintet - This World Turning (Gould Trust, Thetr Mwldan, Cardigan, Wales). Children of Baghdad was a Classical Music Magazine "premiere of the year".
Future commissions include concertos for Raphael Wallfisch and oboist François Leleux.
More recently his film work has included a score for BBC Timewatch, Britain's Lost Colosseum and continued with a score for feature film The List starring Brad Dourif, Wayne Brady and Sydney Tamiia Poitier. In 2006 he is to score two feature films Wicked Are We and Thorsen, and the third BBC 2 television series of A Year At Kew.
To celebrate his 50th birthday this year the Presteigne Festival (founded by the composer in 1983) is to present a number of his important pieces, including Migrations and the early song cycle The Philosophical Beggar. The festival runs from August 24-29.
In 2007 his Images of a Mind has been selected by Ralph Kirshbaum to feature in the International Cello Festival in Manchester, when it will be performed by its original 1986 interpreter, Alexander Baillie, and the composer as pianist.
Based on an earlier text by Ates Orga, copyright 1998.
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