Gareth Williams (composer)


Gareth Patrick Williams is an Irish composer based at Edinburgh College of Art. He was the first composer in residence for Scottish Opera from 2012 to 2015. His work spans from opera and music theatre to chamber music.

Career

Originally from Armagh, Williams moved to Glasgow after studying music at Queen's University, Belfast. In 2008 he was awarded his doctorate from the University of St Andrews. He taught composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland until 2012, and since then works as a freelance composer. His work has been featured in the Edinburgh Festival, St Magnus Festival, Tête à Tête, Opera to Go, and the York Late Music Festival. His music has been broadcast on BBC Scotland, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio Ulster, RTÉ Television, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, and CBC Radio 2 in Canada.
In 2009, he was on residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, where he wrote two large music theatre pieces -A Short Treatise on Love and Miracle for the Sound Festival in Aberdeen, and Gethsemane for the 2010 Plug Festival. In August 2009 and 2010, he took part in the LibLab at Tapestry New Opera Works in Toronto, to create short operas in collaboration with Canadian writers, and these were performed in the Opera Briefs festival in Toronto in both years. In Scotland, NOISE commissioned and premiered ‘the Sloans Project’.
Williams has been Composer in Residence at Scottish Opera, where he created several works for the company. Elephant Angel toured Scotland and Northern Ireland in Autumn 2012. Another opera, Last One Out, was premiered at the Sound Festival in 2012 in Fraserburgh Lighthouse, both works receiving five star reviews from The Herald and The Scotsman. Hand was created for the 2013 Opera Highlights tour. The Song, the Stars and the Blossom appeared in 2014 and Rocking Horse Winner by D. H. Lawrence in 2015. Rocking Horse Winner, chamber opera with libretto by Anna Chatterton, was premiered by Tapestry Opera in Toronto in 2016, and was shortlisted for nine Dora Mavor Moore Awards in 2017, winning five, including best operatic production. The piece was re-staged at Saratoga Opera Festival in 2018. In 2020, Tapestry Opera performed the work again in Toronto.
With the support of The Wellcome Trust, he created Breath Cycle at the Respiratory ward at Gartnavel Royal Hospital, where he made songs and opera specifically for patients with cystic fibrosis. The material was bespoke to lung capacity, range, and ability, and the effects of singing on respiratory health are being monitored and measured.
Breath Cycle was shortlisted for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award in 2013.
In 2015, Hirda, A New Opera for Shetland, co-composed with Shetland Fiddler, Chris Stout, and produced by NOISE, toured Shetland and performed in Glasgow and Edinburgh
From 2016 to 2018, with writer Oliver Emanuel, Williams created the 306 Trilogy, a set of three music theatre works about the British men shot for cowardice in World War 1, commissioned and produced by National Theatre of Scotland, 14 - 18 Now, Horsecross Theatre, Stellar Quines, Red Note Ensemble. Part 1, , and part 2, were shortlisted for CATS awards for best music and sound.
In 2018, Navigate the Blood, an opera, co composed with indie band Admiral Fallow, was commissioned and produced by NOISE Opera. A site specific work, it toured whisky distilleries of Scotland.

Prizes and awards

Prizes include the Dinah Wolf Prize for Composition, and his piece Search Engines was winner of the 2000 Great British Conservatoire Composers Forum. His opera 'Rocking Horse Winner' was nominated for nine in 2017, winning in five categories, including best opera production, best ensemble and best director.

Selected works