Bethan Morgan-Williams

Bethan Morgan-Williams, born 1992, is a composer who writes quirky, rhythmically intricate music, finding motivation in the musical performance itself. Described as “marvellously oblique and obscure” (5against4) while being “rooted in something ancient and folky” (The Telegraph), Morgan-Williams’s music plays with expectation and variance. Ongoing preoccupations include the passing of time, the link between perception and memory, the interplay between systems and intuition and the effects of revisiting material interactions on the substructure of ‘finished’ pieces.

Morgan-Williams enjoys the opportunity to work closely with players and considers collaboration a key part of her practice. Her music has been commissioned and/or performed by numerous established soloists including Carl Rosman (clarinet), Antoine Tamestit (viola), Colin Currie (percussion), Ben Goldscheider (horn) and Jennifer Johnston (mezzo-soprano) as well as internationally acclaimed ensembles such as Ensemble Musikfabrik, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Ensemble 10/10, Psappha, New European Ensemble and orchestras incuding the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra, with broadcasts on WDR, S4C, BBC Radio 3, Hometown Radio (Kentucky) and the Dutch radio society Omroep Max.

Morgan-Williams has already accrued a significant number of prestigious awards including a Leverhulme Scholarship (2018-19), the Susan Bradshaw Composer Prize (RPS, 2017-18), the Christopher Brooks Composition Prize (Young Composer in Residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, 2015-17) and the LSO Panufnik Scheme (2015-16). She was shortlisted for ISCM World Music Days (2019, 2020, 2022), a Paul Hamlyn Award (2017) and Manchester Jazz Festival’s Irwin Mitchell Prize (2014).