Llŷr Williams

Llŷr Williams – pianist

Welsh pianist Llŷr Williams is widely admired for his profound musical intelligence, and for the expressive and communicative nature of his interpretations. An acclaimed performer of Beethoven, he has several complete sonata cycles under his belt, including at Wigmore Hall and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He has also performed multi-recital series of the music of Schubert and Chopin. He regularly appears at all major UK recital venues and Festivals, including Wigmore Hall and the Edinburgh Festival, and with the major UK orchestras; he has a particular relationship with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, with whom he has in recent seasons performed concertos ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Bartók and Mathias.

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The 2021-22 season sees return engagements with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, as well as Llŷr Williams’ return to North America, with recitals for the Capital Region Classical series at Union College, Schenectady and Salle Bourgie in Montreal following highly successful debuts in both series in 2019. The season also includes Williams’ debut in Madrid at the Fundación Juan March, and the continuation of a 6-recital Chopin series at the Royal Welsh college of Music and Drama.

Despite the global pandemic which restricted live performance in 2020-21, Llŷr Williams performed a number of recitals for streaming and broadcast. In May 2020 a planned full Beethoven cycle at the Festival Cultural de Mayo in Guadalajara, Mexico was recorded as live by Signum Records from his home in Wrexham and streamed by the festival in eight broadcasts. In 2020-21 he also returned to Wigmore Hall for two streamed recitals, and he also recorded a number of performances for BBC Radio 3, both solo and with the BBC National orchestra of Wales.

Llŷr Williams’ discography reflects his long association with Signum Records; November 2020 saw the release of an 8-disc box-set ‘A Schubert Journey’. His previous release, the 12-disc ‘Beethoven Unbound’, was BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Recording of the Month’ in August 2018. Other recordings by Williams on Signum include a ‘Wagner Without Words’ double album (2014) and highlights from Liszt’s ‘Années de pèlerinage ‘(2012). He has also recorded William Mathias’ second Piano Concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, as well as works by Welsh composers for the Tŷ Cerdd label.

A former BBC New Generation Artist and Borletti-Buitoni Trust award winner, Llŷr Williams was born in Pentrebychan, North Wales, and read music at The Queen’s College, Oxford before taking up a postgraduate scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and in 2017 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Wales. He is also currently Artist-in-Association at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

November 2021

Contact:
Nicolas Papageorgiou (Director)
Aude-Marie Auphan (Director)

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