Roger Williams (organist)
Encyclopedia
Dr Roger Bevan Williams, MBE (born 30 August 1943) is a British (Welsh) organist
and musicologist. In 2010, he retired as Master of Ceremonial Music and Organist to the University of Aberdeen
, a Music department in which he had been a member for over 30 years.
, Williams began his musical education at the Huddersfield School of Music (now part of the University
) where he studied Piano, Organ, Harpsichord, Harp, Viola, Conducting and Composition. He graduated with BMus Honours from the University of Wales (University College Cardiff)
before proceeding to Goldsmiths' College, University of London, for a Post Graduate Certificate in Education. At King's College Cambridge he gained PhD for his research into the early works of Arnold Schoenberg
.
Williams spent eight years in London as a free-lance conductor, organist, harpsichordist, singer and composer. He held various church posts while also running a small opera company, singing as an ad-hoc singer with the BBC Singers
and performing at major London concert venues (Royal Festival Hall
, Royal Albert Hall
, Queen Elizabeth Hall
, Purcell Room
, Wigmore Hall
).
He was, briefly, Head of the Chiswick Evening Music Centre and Lecturer at the West London Institute
. In 1978 he took up the post of Lecturer in the Music Department at Aberdeen University and was later appointed Senior Lecturer and Head of Department. Following the closure of the Music Department in Aberdeen (now re-established) he was appointed Music Director and Organist to the University.
Williams continues to teach and work in Aberdeen where he has enjoyed a long association with the Haddo House Choral & Operatic Society and the North East of Scotland Music School
. He was made MBE in the UK Honours list of 2009. Recognising his many years of service and astounding number of recitals at their institution, Williams was made an honorary Doctor of Music from the University of Aberdeen in July 2011.
where he advised on the rebuilding of an 1870s Willis
organ
. Previously he had been an Assistant Organist at Holy Trinity Church Brompton
, then Organist at St. Patrick’s Soho Square
, and Music Director and Organist at the Sacred Heart Church, Wimbledon
.
During the 1980s he was Chorus Master to the Scottish National Orchestra (now RSNO), working with conductors such as Alexander Gibson
, Neeme Järvi
, Yuri Ahronovich
, Gary Bertini
, Norman Del Mar
, Christopher Seaman
, Simon Rattle
, Esa-Pekka Salonen
, Bryden Thomson
, Richard Hickox
, and Yan Pascal Tortelier
. The chorus gave the first broadcast of Britten
's War Requiem
on Italian radio on a tour to Turin
and, on a tour to Jerusalem, the world premier of its first commission, Pipes of Peace by Eddie McGuire
.
In 1990 he was appointed Organist to the University and had the Harrison and Harrison organ in the Chapel at King's College
revoiced and tuned to an unequal temperament. As Master of Ceremonial Music he helped to acquire the new Aubertin - the first in the UK. He has since commissioned several leading composers to write pieces specially conceived for this instrument.
On 31 August 2010, he retired as Master of Chapel and Ceremonial Music to the University of Aberdeen. He celebrated this with a concert of organ works at the University Chapel, including the famous Bach Toccata in d minor.
On 16 September 2010, Williams performed during the Papal Mass at Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, as part of Pope Benedict XI's tour of the United Kingdom.
Currently, Williams remains a visiting pianoforte and organ tutor to students at the University of Aberdeen and the North East of Scotland Music School. He continues to perform across Aberdeenshire, to direct ensembles including the Aberdeen Diocesan Choir and undertaking further academic research on the music collections of Scottish castles and country houses.
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
and musicologist. In 2010, he retired as Master of Ceremonial Music and Organist to the University of Aberdeen
University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...
, a Music department in which he had been a member for over 30 years.
Biography
Born in SwanseaSwansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
, Williams began his musical education at the Huddersfield School of Music (now part of the University
University of Huddersfield
The University of Huddersfield is a university located in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England.- History :The University traces its roots back to a Science and Mechanic Institute founded in 1825...
) where he studied Piano, Organ, Harpsichord, Harp, Viola, Conducting and Composition. He graduated with BMus Honours from the University of Wales (University College Cardiff)
Cardiff University
Cardiff University is a leading research university located in the Cathays Park area of Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. It received its Royal charter in 1883 and is a member of the Russell Group of Universities. The university is consistently recognised as providing high quality research-based...
before proceeding to Goldsmiths' College, University of London, for a Post Graduate Certificate in Education. At King's College Cambridge he gained PhD for his research into the early works of Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
.
Williams spent eight years in London as a free-lance conductor, organist, harpsichordist, singer and composer. He held various church posts while also running a small opera company, singing as an ad-hoc singer with the BBC Singers
BBC Singers
The BBC Singers are the professional chamber choir of the BBC. As one of six BBC Performing Groups, the 24-voiced choir has been in existence for more than 80 years. The BBC Singers have commissioned and premiered works by the leading composers of the past century, including Benjamin Britten, Sir...
and performing at major London concert venues (Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
, Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
, Queen Elizabeth Hall
Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is a music venue on the South Bank in London, United Kingdom that hosts daily classical, jazz, and avant-garde music and dance performances. The QEH forms part of Southbank Centre arts complex and stands alongside the Royal Festival Hall, which was built for the Festival...
, Purcell Room
Purcell Room
The Purcell Room is a concert and performance venue which forms part of the Southbank Centre, one of central London's leading cultural complexes. It is named after the 17th century English composer Henry Purcell and has 370 seats....
, Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
).
He was, briefly, Head of the Chiswick Evening Music Centre and Lecturer at the West London Institute
West London Institute of Higher Education
The West London Institute of Higher Education was located in Isleworth, West London, UK from 1976 until 1995 when it merged with Brunel University.- Establishment :...
. In 1978 he took up the post of Lecturer in the Music Department at Aberdeen University and was later appointed Senior Lecturer and Head of Department. Following the closure of the Music Department in Aberdeen (now re-established) he was appointed Music Director and Organist to the University.
Williams continues to teach and work in Aberdeen where he has enjoyed a long association with the Haddo House Choral & Operatic Society and the North East of Scotland Music School
North East of Scotland Music School
The North East of Scotland Music School is an independent charitable foundation established in Aberdeen, Scotland by the late Dorothy Hately MBE in 1975 with the encouragement of...
. He was made MBE in the UK Honours list of 2009. Recognising his many years of service and astounding number of recitals at their institution, Williams was made an honorary Doctor of Music from the University of Aberdeen in July 2011.
Professional life
For the first 15 years of his appointment in Scotland Williams also held the post of Organist at the Church of Our Lady of Victories, Kensington High StreetKensington High Street
Kensington High Street is the main shopping street in Kensington, west London. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....
where he advised on the rebuilding of an 1870s Willis
Henry Willis & Sons
thumb|250px|St Bees Priory organ, the last major instrument to be personally supervised by "Father" Henry Willis, 1899Henry Willis & Sons is a British firm of pipe organ builders founded in 1845 in Liverpool. Although most of their installations have been in the UK, examples can be found in other...
organ
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
. Previously he had been an Assistant Organist at Holy Trinity Church Brompton
Holy Trinity Brompton Church
Holy Trinity Brompton with St Paul's, Onslow Square is an Anglican church in Brompton, London, United Kingdom. The church consists of three church buildings, HTB Brompton Road, HTB Onslow Square and HTB Queen's Gate, as well as being the home for Worship Central, St Paul's Theological Centre and...
, then Organist at St. Patrick’s Soho Square
Soho Square
Soho Square is a square in Soho, London, England, with a park and garden area at its centre that dates back to 1681. It was originally called King Square after Charles II, whose statue stands in the square. At the centre of the garden, there is a distinctive half-timbered gardener's hut...
, and Music Director and Organist at the Sacred Heart Church, Wimbledon
Sacred Heart Church Wimbledon
Sacred Heart Church is a Roman Catholic church and parish in Wimbledon, South West London run by the Jesuits, that serves the Catholic community of Wimbledon and surrounding areas.-General:...
.
During the 1980s he was Chorus Master to the Scottish National Orchestra (now RSNO), working with conductors such as Alexander Gibson
Alexander Gibson (conductor)
Sir Alexander Gibson, CBE was a Scottish conductor and opera intendant.Gibson was born in Motherwell and studied music at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, as well as in London, Salzburg and Siena, Italy...
, Neeme Järvi
Neeme Järvi
Neeme Järvi is an Estonian-born conductor.-Early life:Järvi studied music first in Tallinn, and later in Leningrad at the Leningrad Conservatory under Yevgeny Mravinsky, and Nikolai Rabinovich, among others...
, Yuri Ahronovich
Yuri Ahronovich
Yuri Mikhaylovich Ahronovitch was a Soviet-born Israeli conductor.Born in Leningrad, he studied music and the violin from the age of 4. In 1954 he graduated as conductor from the Leningrad Conservatory. He studied with Nathan Rachlin and Kurt Sanderling...
, Gary Bertini
Gary Bertini
Gary Bertini was an Israeli conductor.-Biography:Gary Bertini was born Shloyme Golergant in Bricheva, Bessarabia, then in Romania, now in Donduşeni District, Moldova. His father, K. A. Bertini , was a poet and translator of the Russian and Yiddish Gary Bertini (Hebrew: גארי ברתיני) (born 1 May...
, Norman Del Mar
Norman Del Mar
Norman Del Mar CBE was a British conductor, horn player, and biographer. As a conductor, he specialized in the music of late romantic composers; including Edward Elgar, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss. He left a great legacy of recordings of British music, in particular Elgar, Vaughan Williams,...
, Christopher Seaman
Christopher Seaman
Christopher Seaman is a British conductor, the son of Albert Edward Seaman and Ethel Margery Seaman. He was educated at Canterbury Cathedral Choir School and The King's School, Canterbury, and later studied at King's College, Cambridge...
, Simon Rattle
Simon Rattle
Sir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since 2002 has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic ....
, Esa-Pekka Salonen
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Esa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is currently Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and Conductor Laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.-Early career:...
, Bryden Thomson
Bryden Thomson
Bryden Thomson was a Scottish conductor.Bryden Thomson was born in Ayr. He led several British orchestras, including the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra from 1977 to 1985...
, Richard Hickox
Richard Hickox
Richard Sidney Hickox CBE was an English conductor of choral, orchestral and operatic music.-Early life:Hickox was born in Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire into a musical family...
, and Yan Pascal Tortelier
Yan Pascal Tortelier
Yan Pascal Tortelier is an internationally renowned French conductor and violinist and is the son of the late cellist Paul Tortelier.-Biography:...
. The chorus gave the first broadcast of Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's War Requiem
War Requiem
The War Requiem, Op. 66 is a large-scale, non-liturgical setting of the Requiem Mass composed by Benjamin Britten mostly in 1961 and completed January 1962. Interspersed with the traditional Latin texts, in telling juxtaposition, are settings of Wilfred Owen poems...
on Italian radio on a tour to Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
and, on a tour to Jerusalem, the world premier of its first commission, Pipes of Peace by Eddie McGuire
Edward McGuire (composer)
Edward McGuire is a Scottish composer.He studied composition with James Iliff at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1966 to 1970 and then with Ingvar Lidholm in Stockholm in 1971....
.
In 1990 he was appointed Organist to the University and had the Harrison and Harrison organ in the Chapel at King's College
King's College, Aberdeen
King's College in Old Aberdeen, Scotland is a formerly independent university founded in 1495 and an integral part of the University of Aberdeen...
revoiced and tuned to an unequal temperament. As Master of Ceremonial Music he helped to acquire the new Aubertin - the first in the UK. He has since commissioned several leading composers to write pieces specially conceived for this instrument.
On 31 August 2010, he retired as Master of Chapel and Ceremonial Music to the University of Aberdeen. He celebrated this with a concert of organ works at the University Chapel, including the famous Bach Toccata in d minor.
On 16 September 2010, Williams performed during the Papal Mass at Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, as part of Pope Benedict XI's tour of the United Kingdom.
Currently, Williams remains a visiting pianoforte and organ tutor to students at the University of Aberdeen and the North East of Scotland Music School. He continues to perform across Aberdeenshire, to direct ensembles including the Aberdeen Diocesan Choir and undertaking further academic research on the music collections of Scottish castles and country houses.