Gregory K. Williams

One of the perks of this time of the year, apart from chances to go hiking with friends on days off, or getting to go running along the water (both of which I had the chance to do over the last 48 hours), is the opportunity to reflect on some of the successes of the past year.

I particularly enjoyed the solo recital tour I did last fall, which included two performances in NYC, one at the University of Northern Iowa, and also in Cambridge, MA. I am hoping to have similar opportunities to do this again this coming year, and I am interested in collaborating with others to make this happen.

Last night I managed to extract the performances of the pieces that were on that recital series, from the last concert, which took place at The Lilypad in Inman Square, in Cambridge, and have put them on my SoundCloud page. This was a particularly exciting concert since it was the first performance I did in the Boston area since 2006 (when I graduated from BU), and I had the opportunity to perform for former my teacher, classmates, dear friends, and also family (with 4 incredibly well-behaved nephews in the front row). It was a real special experience that I won’t take for granted!

Today I am including links to two of the pieces, and I will share some of the others in a subsequent post. If you are on SoundCloud, please feel free to follow me on there (and I can follow you back), but hopefully the embedded links below will suffice for those who do not have access to SoundCloud.

The first recording I am putting up today is Cave of The Heart, by Donna Doyle. Prof. Donna Doyle is a dear colleague who I have had the privilege of working with at Queens College for the past 13 years, who has been kind enough to help mentor me over the years. Cave of the Heart is a piece that I have performed often since the start of the COVID pandemic 5 years ago.

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/2103374043&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=true&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true

Gregory K. Williams · CaveOfTheHeart, by Donna Doyle

The other recording that I am posting today is the Passacaglia by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644-1704). Biber was a prolific German composer and violinist from the Baroque era, who was from the generation before J. S. Bach. While a majority of the pieces on this solo program were by living composers, the Passacaglia was one of the two that were not.

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/2103446916&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=true&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true

Gregory K. Williams · Passacaglia, by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber

Photo credit: Ellen Golden