New CD release

CAM founder and pianist Wendy Hiscocks features on a new CD with the songs of Welsh composer Grace Williams...

With additional funding from the Vaughan Williams Foundation and the Ambache Charitable Trust, this British Music Society recording is being launched on the Naxos label on 7 August and includes world premiere recordings of 29 songs by Grace Williams.

“My interest in Grace Williams was initially fired by my husband who spent his summer holidays as a boy in the South Wales seaside town of Barry where he met the composer“

Says Wendy

“CAM’s filmed recital ‘South Wales meets New South Wales’ with the Welsh baritone Jeremy Huw Williams awakened my interest in exploring her beautifully crafted music in more depth.“

Added Wendy

‘The result was this CD which is a perfect example of her style – concise and clear with no notes wasted, and with a natural lyricism.

Continued Wendy

The Barry-born Welsh composer Grace Williams (1906-1977) studied with Gordon Jacob, Egon Wellesz and Ralph Vaughan Williams, and in 1949 became the first British woman to score a feature film. 

Grace Williams’ lifelong interest in vocal writing no doubt owed something to her upbringing in Wales. The original works heard here in their premiere recordings span the entirety of her career and reflect the spirit of her Welsh background.