Gabriel Williams - Composer
Gabriel Williams is an emerging British composer whose work threads the micro-polyphony of high modernism through the rugged heterophonic singing traditions of the Anglosphere, producing music that is dense in texture yet direct in expression. Melody and the human voice remain the central concern of his output, even in works scored purely for instruments.
His concert music has been performed at Wigmore Hall and St Martin-in-the-Fields, and has won first prize at several international composition competitions, including the Bruno Maderna Competition and the KLK New Music: Musica per Archi Competition. Beyond the concert hall, Williams has composed the score for the award-winning independent film Once Upon a Time in Bolivia, and his installation work has been featured at the Saatchi Gallery.
He trained at the Purcell School, Royal Academy of Music, the University of York, and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He is the founder of Vox Alba, a concert series, publisher and record label supporting a scene of composers working with chant, Renaissance polyphony and sacred music traditions, and he works with the Max Trust, promoting the life and music of Peter Maxwell Davies.
Latest Releases
Performances of Note
· NED ENSEMBLE - The Thirteenth Blackbird for soprano and mixed ensemble performed at Festival Delle Arti Contemporanee in Verona, Italy 2023
· TRIO MAZZOLINI – Piano trio written for the Trio Mussolini and recorded 2023
· HILL QUARTET - Codices Cosmographiae, album for string quartet, recorded and filmed 2023
· ECHEA QUARTET – Workfor string quartet premiered at the Royal Academy of Music 2022
· NASH ENSEMBLE – Mark Anthony Turnage 60th Anniversary Concert work commissioned for Nash Ensemble side by side with Royal Academy of Music players 2021
· CHROMA ENSEMBLE – Sound and Vision FestivalCHROMA side by side with Royal Academy of Music players at the Sound and Vision festival
· HIC LEO NOSTER – Album of String Workself-released album of string work performed and recorded in the UK and Finland (2018)
· BRUNO MADERNA COMPETITION – FIRST PRIZE string quartet piece premiered in Lviv Ukraine (2018)
· MUSICA PER ARCHI COMPETITION – FIRST PRIZE string orchestra piece premiered in Lviv Ukraine (2017)
· MATE FESTIVAL – Concert Work for Voice and Tape premiered at the Helsinki Music Centre (2017)
· KLANG FESTIVAL – Uusinta String Quartet premiered at the Helsinki Music Centre (2017)
· LIGETI QUARTET – Premiered at York University(2018)
· DIOTOMA QUARTET – Premiered at York University(2016)
· ST MARTIN IN THE FIELDS – Song cycle composed for a student ensemble (2014)
Latest on Youtube
