Grace Williams (1906-1977)

Grace Williams (1906-1977) was born in Barry and educated at Barry Grammar School before graduating with a B.Mus at the University College Cardiff in 1926. She continued her studies with Vaughan Williams and Gordon Jacob at the Royal College of Music, London, together with Egon Wellesz in Vienna. After a period of teaching at the Camden School for Girls in London and later at Southlands College of Education, in 1946 she returned to Wales to work on various educational programmes for the BBC and as a freelance composer.
Early in her career she established herself as one of Wales’ leading composers of her generation, working mainly to commissions by the BBC and various festivals. Her output of songs and choral pieces contributed a great deal to the Welsh vocal repertoire, with numerous settings of Welsh folk songs (See My Love in the Orchard Yonder, and Hunting the Fox), together with part-songs such as The Nightingale and The Flower of Bethlehem. Numerous recordings of her works are featured on Chandos and Lyrita labels.

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