Chris Williams

Sketches

for Violin, Horn and Piano

The work unfolds in a series of four “sketches.” (A prelude and three brief movements) In coming to terms with the “intimate” nature of the concert I was interested in paring back my writing in order to place emphasis on the interaction of the three instruments (and musicians) within the ensemble. I was also keen on isolating the instruments, before bringing them together, in order to deal with the instruments by themselves as well as in a group. In staging the work I was keen for there to be a sense that, rather than a public performance, we were somehow party to a private one, taking place for its own sake. In this aim I was quite interested by a notion of “intimate lines.”

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Chris Williams, born in Newcastle, Australia, currently lives and works in Sydney, where he is studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music for his B.Mus majoring in composition. Outside the conservatorium, Chris has benefited greatly from the guidance of his mentor and tutor Nigel Butterley, while composition teachers at the conservatorium have included Michael Smetanin, and Damien Ricketson, both protégés of Louis Andriessen.

Chris is currently on a full foundation scholarship at St.Paul’s College University of Sydney. Chris is also vice president of the “Sydney Eclectic Composer’s Society.” His work has been performed in Australia, Canada, U.S.A, Italy and Austria, and is catalogued and held at Fischer Library, Sydney University.

As one of the composers selected for The Song Company's professional development project, Modart, Chris joined only 6 other composers from across Australia and New Zealand to create a work for solo, unaccompanied voices in 2007. During this year, he was also the first Australian composer to be selected for the Cortona Contemporary Music Festival, Italy. At the festival, Chris was recognised by receiving the "Soundscape" award and commission to create an opening work for next year's festival. (2008)

Among the many awards recognising his music, Chris has received both the Raymond Hanson, and Alfred Hill memorial prizes for composition and in 2006, his multi-movement work "Piano Quintet no.1," written when he was only 17 years of age, was awarded first place in the Ignaz Friedman Memorial Prize for Composition. Recently, he was awarded first prize in The Young Australian Composer's Award, by the Chamber Strings of Melbourne.

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