Performed by myself (violin) and fellow classmates of the University of Aberdeen Tango Class at our Milonga 2021.

Tangueros (May 2021)

white rabbit

Winner of the Aberdeen University Concert Band's competition to write an original piece under 2 minutes in early Spring 2021.

Premiered by the AUCB at the Music Hall Aberdeen in December 2021, conducted by Sam Paul.

UoASO & AUCB 2021 - Autumn Concert

Get in the Groove (January 2021)

Autumn Hugs

Ginseng Strip 2002 Instrumental

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

Go Compose! is a 3-day composition course for young composers and creative musicians aged 14-19 and in full time education. It’s a unique opportunity to work with professional composers and musicians.

Go Compose! 2019 took place 13th-15th October at The Barn, Banchory. With the help from professional composers Ailie Robertson and Linda Buckley and musicians from Red Note Ensemble, 11 young composers created their own, original piece of music. The course finishes finished with a fantastic performance from the players of Red Note, with 11 new pieces being aired for the first time. Each of the composers introduced their own works, as well as producing a short programme note about the pieces, explaining how they had got to the point of completion over the last few days.

Go Compose! is a collaboration between sound, Red Note Ensemble and Sound and Music with support from Creative Scotland, Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council, David and June Gordon Memorial Trust, Aberdeen Endowments Trust, The Robertson Trust, Michael Tippett Foundation, and the Hugh Fraser Foundation.

sound would also like to thank Banchory Academy Music Department for their continued support of Go Compose by allowing us the use their departmental keyboards.

sound also runs composition workshops throughout the year. More information: https://sound-scotland.co.uk/participate/young-people

Laughter, Sorrow, Land And Sea By Ruaraidh Williams

Consume Within 90 Minute - An Interstellar Chicken Odyssey By Alexandre Gardie

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

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'.

Laughter, Sorrow, Land And Sea

Ruaraidh Williams

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