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 Street 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.
Read more about this topic: Roger Williams (organist)
Famous quotes containing the words professional and/or life:
“So-called professional mathematicians have, in their reliance on the relative incapacity of the rest of mankind, acquired for themselves a reputation for profundity very similar to the reputation for sanctity possessed by theologians.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“The compensation of a very early success is a conviction that life is a romantic matter. In the best sense one stays young.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)