Better known to some as a baritone soloist, Roderick Williams’ reputation as a composer is growing steadily. His advent antiphon O Adonai has received numerous recordings and performances around the world. His motet after William Byrd, Ave Verum Corpus Re-imagined, commissioned and recorded by ORA, was awarded the BASCA prize for Choral Composition in 2016.
He has written many solo songs for himself as well as for friends and colleagues. His song A Coat appears on the NMC Songbook disc, a survey of British song writing in 2009. Several of his songs were premiered over the years at his own recitals in Three Choirs Festivals and at London’s Wigmore Hall. Roderick broadcast his own orchestrated arrangements of Ol’ Man River and Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho on the BBC Last Night of the Proms in 2014. An album of his sacred choral works was released on the Signum label in 2017.
Commissions have included O Brother Man, A New England Symphony for Yale Schola Cantorum premiered in Spring 2015; Per Ardua ad Astra, a large-scale cantata marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Air Force which was premiered in 2018 at the Barbican Centre, London; a joint commission for the BBC Singers and the RIAS Kammerchor of Berlin to celebrate the centenary of the Armistice, entitled World Without End, premiered in Berlin and London in the Autumn of 2018.
Roderick has been commissioned for new music by Tenebrae, Ex Cathedra, Voces8 and the BBC Singers (who have recently appointed him Associate Composer). The Hallé orchestra will be releasing a recital survey disc of English Song, orchestrated and sung by Roderick and conducted by Sir Mark Elder. Selected music is published by OUP and Edition Peters.