Ruaraidh Williams Ruaraidh Williams Manchester // Aberdeen 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'. Ruaraidh Williams’s tracks High Five (arr. Ruaraidh Williams, Kit McCarthy & Johanna Weutka) by Ruaraidh Williams published on 2021-06-17T13:11:10Z In the Bleak Midwinter for Cello Quartet and Electric Ensemble by Ruaraidh Williams published on 2020-12-24T13:21:20Z Father and Daughter Original Score by Ruaraidh Williams published on 2020-09-08T11:50:48Z Pentatonic Improvisation by Ruaraidh Williams published on 2020-05-11T14:50:17Z An Eventful Lockdown, a piece for Solo Cello by Ruaraidh Williams published on 2020-05-08T14:12:44Z Degradado Sol by Ruaraidh Williams published on 2020-04-09T15:35:58Z Laughter, Sorrow, Land And Sea by Ruaraidh Williams published on 2019-12-19T22:45:40Z Grounded Sky by Ruaraidh Williams published on 2019-09-20T14:59:13Z I'm Your Kinda Guy by Ruaraidh Williams published on 2019-07-26T13:07:00Z
High Five (arr. Ruaraidh Williams, Kit McCarthy & Johanna Weutka) by Ruaraidh Williams published on 2021-06-17T13:11:10Z
In the Bleak Midwinter for Cello Quartet and Electric Ensemble by Ruaraidh Williams published on 2020-12-24T13:21:20Z