Grace Williams

Welsh composer Grace Mary Williams was born in Barry, Glamorgan on 19 February 1906 into a musical family. She learned to play piano and violin when young, playing piano trios with her father and brother, and accompanying her father's choir.

Her interest in composition began at school, and she studied at what is now Cardiff University, at the Royal College of Music in London with Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughan Williams and in Vienna with Egon Wellesz.

She taught at Camden Girls' School and Southlands College in London from 1932, and was evacuated with students to Grantham, Lincolnshire during World War II, where she wrote various early works, including the popular Fantastia on Welsh Nursery Tunes of 1940, and also the Sinfonia Concertante for Piano and Orchestra (1941) and her first symphony (1943).

On writing the music for the British drama Blue Scar (1949), she became the first British woman to write the score for a feature film. Another popular work is Penillion (1955) written for the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. Her only opera, The Parlour (1960-1) was performed in 1966.

Grace Williams suffered from various stress-related health problems, including depression, during and after the war. She died in Barry on 10 February 1977, aged seventy.

 

A selection of articles about Grace Williams

Spotlight. Rather Enigmatic - Geoff Pearce, after listening to 'Missa Cambrensis', wants to hear more by Welsh composer Grace Williams. '... exceptional artists ...'

Classical music news. March 2023 Newsletter - Our March 2023 PDF newsletter has just been published, along with some extra classical music news and our February 2023 classical music obituaries

Ensemble. Packed With Good Things - Roderic Dunnett reports from the 2019 Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester