Chris Williams, Musicology

The Philadelphia Inquirer called Chris Williams’ music a “a lovely shade of wistful”, while the Daily Review noted his “brilliantly unsettling music” for the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at the Sydney Opera House.

In 2021, The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra premiered Chris’ Cor Anglais Concerto, commissioned by the orchestra, and in 2022 The Song Company are to premiere his major song cycle, ‘I pray the sea’. In 2020, Chris’ work for string orchestra ‘Time before and time after' was awarded first prize at the Musica Per Archi competition, supported by the Lviv Philharmonic Society, Ukraine. In 2019 His music music featured in the Song Company’s 35th anniversary tour, where it “floated… ending iridescently” (Sydney Morning Herald). 

Chris is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and completed a Master of Philosophy in composition at the University of Oxford, studying with Professor Robert Saxton. In 2012 he was commissioned by Carnegie Hall where he worked with composer-in residence Kaija Saariaho. Previously, Chris was one of only six composers worldwide to be selected by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies to attend his Advanced Composition course at the Dartington International Summer School. He is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium and was the inaugural Friends of the National Library of Australia Creative Arts Fellow. He is an Associate Artist at the Australian Music Centre.

Contact Info:

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Web Page:	http://www.chriswilliamscomposer.com

Keywords:

Composition (Music) • Harmonic analysis (Music) • Modernism (Music) • Music • Music appreciation • Music theory • Music theory--History--20th century • Musical analysis • Tonality

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

• 3rd Australian International Chopin Piano Competition, Composition Prize, Friends of Chopin Australia

Recent Publications

1. Williams, C, Embodied Music Theory and Improvised Composition: Bill Evans, the Architect, edited by Gapsevičienė, A; Šiušaitė, Z; Janeliauskas, R, Principals of Music Composing, vol. XVII (2017), pp. 86-98, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, and  [abs]