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Chris Williams : Associate Artist

Music exists in moments of absolute, unutterable stillness, and ecstasy. Composition lures us towards these ineffable raptures through exploration and revelation, the balance of unity and ambiguity and the confluence of formal construction with the sensual.

Random Audio Sample: Two episodes for solo piano (solo piano) by Chris Williams, from the CD Narratives and detours


Photo of Chris Williams

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Chris Williams is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he completed his degree in composition with first class honours. In 2008 Williams was one of only six composers worldwide to be selected by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen's Music, to attend the Advanced Composition course at the Dartington International Summer School in England. Assisted by a bursary from the summer school, and as the winner of a JB Seed arts grant, Williams spent his time in residency working with Maxwell Davies on a chamber work, which was premiered by the New Century Players (Calarts, USA). Also in 2008, Williams conducted the European premiere of his piece Moonlight, and the Sorrow, commissioned by the Soundscape Festival (Italy).

In Australia, Williams won the Young Australian Composer Award, chaired by John Hopkins and run by the Chamber Strings of Melbourne. He has also worked with The Song Company as part of the MODART project, and written for the St Paul's Chapel Choir, conducted by David Drury. In 2010 Williams was composer-in-residence with The Australian Voices. His choral work of dust, written for the choir, was recently featured at the national choral festival, Choralfest.

Williams has been commissioned by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as part of the Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers Program, and has been performed by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

Williams's music has also has been performed by the Sydney Camerata, the Bourbaki Ensemble, Claire Edwardes, the Soundscape Festival Faculty, and Amanda Deboer. As part of the Judith Wright Project, Nicole Thompson and Brad Gill premiered his piece of silence into silence. Williams conducted the premiere of Gill's Patterns, at the same event, which was recorded by the ABC.

His major compositional mentor has been Nigel Butterley, with whom he has studied privately for a number of years and in 2010 Williams was recognised as the recipient of an ArtStart grant from the Australian Council for the Arts, given to outstanding emerging artists.


Chris Williams — current to March 2011

Selected Commissions

  Work Commission Details
of dust : for SATB choir (2010) Commissioned by The Australian Voices.

Analysis & Media

- Program note: You In The Night Chris Williams