Hello from myself, Kit and Johanna! 

Over the initial 2020 Covid lockdown myself, Kit and Johanna decided to get together (virtually) to arrange a good ol' feel good pop song. We met almost weekly from May till August culminating in this awesome little arrangement and recording of Norwegian pop artist, Sigrid’s, 'High Five’. 
We had so much fun creating this recording so, from us, we wish you a great time listening to it and maybe even a bit of dance!

"High Five" (Sigrid)
Arranged and written by: Ruaraidh Williams, Kit McCarthy  & Johanna Weutka

Kit's SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/kitmccarthy

Violin I/II/III: Johanna Weutka
Cello I/II/III: Ruaraidh Williams
Synth: Kit McCarthy
Keyboard: Kit McCarthy 
Guitar: Ruaraidh Williams
Bass: Ruaraidh Williams
Drums: Kit McCarthy

Mixed and Mastered by: Ruaraidh Williams

High Five (arr. Ruaraidh Williams, Kit McCarthy & Johanna Weutka)

Peintre de Soleil 'Sun Painter' for Flute, Clarinet, Violin and Cello.

I composed this piece while down in London on the Sound and Music Summer School 2018. (Which highly recommend for any young composers!)
I am really proud of the result and my piece, so enjoy! 

Recorded at the Sound and Music Summer School 2018 / Cover Artwork by Louise Allardyce

Peintre de Soleil

My cover on the spicy, 'Havana' by Camilla Cabello - Enjoy ;)

I swear I'm a sucker for almost all Latin American, Spanish Flamenco music, no exceptions here!

Instagram: @R.T_Music

Havana

A guitar and bass guitar track with some train sounds from a trip to London last year - 08:12:18

Photo by Nareeta Martin on Unsplash

Guitar_Løøps

A short cover of Buffalo Springfield's 'Im Your Kind of Guy' (Demo track)

I'm Your Kinda Guy

Recorded with Electric guitar, bass and synths.

Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash

Grounded Sky

Laughter, Sorrow, Land and Sea; A quote paraphrased from the poem ‘Between the Dee and the Don’ by Jackie Kay, Scotland’s Makar. 

“I live between laughter and sorrow. 

I live between Land and Sea.” 

… 

“I was conceived between the Dee and the Don. 
I was born in the city of crag and stone.”  

 

Since attended a live reading from the Glaswegian poet, and I found that once my piece was completed it reflected and seemed inspired by Jackie Kay’s poetry. The piece travels to a joyful and contented space which slowly transforms to a wistful and sorrowful atmosphere until the initial spirit is regained as the piece traverses' expansive landscape and distance as if soaring across the sea.  

Recorded @ GoCompose! 2019

Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

Laughter, Sorrow, Land And Sea

A piece composed and performed at the Sound and Music Summer school last year while partaking in the Jazz group! 'Degradado Sol' 

Photo by David von Diemar on Unsplash

Degradado Sol

A piece for solo cello composed during week three of lockdown. An organic piece I composed on the cello itself which allowed me to indulge in several very cello-y things. Performed within the Commonwealth Resounds organisation.

Photo by United Nations COVID-19 Response Unsplash

An Eventful Lockdown, a piece for Solo Cello

Photo by Paul Blenkhorn @SensoryArtHouse on Unsplash.

Pentatonic Improvisation

A new original score for this wonderful little animation by Michael Dudok de Wit composed while at the Sound and Music Summer School 2020! :) 

Here is a link to the film as I strongly recommend watching it while listening. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wql5GL2ZB4U

Music recorded @ Sound and Music Summer School 2020

Father and Daughter Original Score

Merry Christmas everybody! This is an arrangement of In the Bleak Midwinter by Gustav Holst. The arrangement features a cello quartet and an electric ensemble comprised of electric guitar, bass guitar and synth bass.

Photo by Jad Limcaco on Unsplash

In the Bleak Midwinter for Cello Quartet and Electric Ensemble

Ruaraidh Williams is a cellist, guitarist and composer based in Manchester / Scotland. He is currently studying with Nicholas Trygstad at the Royal Northern College of Music with a scholarship and performs with Manchester’s Wyatt Sinfonia. This year he is workshopping new music for electronics and strings in the RNCM composition department, performing with the Bloomfield Quartet (including a concert for International Women’s Day), competing in the Hirsch Prize for Beethoven’s chamber music and performing with the Manchester Video Games Orchestra. Ruaraidh is generously supported in his studies at the RNCM by the Haworth Trust .

As an emerging talent, Ruaraidh was awarded the Joan Dickson Cello Scholarship from the North East of Scotland Music School (2018-21), as well as the Henry McKenzie Johnston Award (2018) and Robert Lewin Scholarship (2019) from Awards for Young Musicians. In October 2019 he performed at Haddo Arts Festival (introducing Scots Makar Jackie Kay), competed in the ﬁnal of Grampian Youth Orchestra’s Concerto Competition, and performed a new composition by Shiori Usui – 'The Silent Forest’ – alongside AYM award winners and musicians from Birmingham Contemporary Music Group at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. He also performed with Grampian Youth Orchestra from 2017-2020.

In 2021 Ruaraidh performed online in the Inverness Music Festival, winning the Curtis Craig Cup; with the return to live music, he performed alongside alt-pop / folk artist Dawn Coulshed at Eden Court Theatre. Since 2016, Ruaraidh has been performing with the National Youth Orchestras of Scotland; selected as principal cello for the Senior orchestra’s 2019 season (performing alongside Alexey Stadler) and has recently been chosen as principal cello for the Symphony orchestra’s 2022 season.

Since 2017 Ruaraidh has also been exploring composition and developing his writing skills and style with many wonderful composers from a broad range of musical approaches and backgrounds through Get Composing, GoCompose!, Sound and Music Summer School and The Commonwealth Resounds. Working with professional musicians such as Red Note Ensemble, he has steadily grown more confident in forming and expressing new ideas, putting them to score and bringing them to life. In 2018 Ruaraidh was shortlisted for BBC Proms Inspire Competition, and in 2019 he received a Steve Martland Scholarship from Sound and Music (the national charity for new music) which allowed him to expand his compositional skills in a week-long workshop at Purcell Music School (London). He was also selected by Sound Scotland to have one of his pieces performed in the Sound Festival by Aberdeen’s new music ensemble Any Enemy; the premiere at The Lemon Tree was recorded by BBC Radio 3 for future broadcast as part of its new music strand. In 2021, Ruaraidh was highly commended in the Scottish Freelancers' Ensemble Student commission competition and shortlisted for the Philip Bates Prize for composers and songwriters with his piece 'This Morning I Watched from Here'.

Ruaraidh Williams

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