Contributor
Felicity Williams
Composer
Biography
Felicity Mary Williams (née Walker) was born on 24 July 1954 in Christchurch. Educated at Rangi Ruru Girls High School Christchurch (1968-1972), she left high school to travel abroad with her parents, living in India in 1972.
She enrolled at the University of Canterbury from 1973-1975, and again in 1977, graduating BMus 1976 and BMus(hons) 1978. In 1976 she completed studies at Christchurch Teachers' College. She studied piano with Rosemary Stott and Iola Shelley, completing LTCL in 1973, and LRSM in 1979. She received the Irene Lassen Prize for outstanding candidate.
Felicity studied singing with Winifred Walker and Joan Davies, completing her LTCL in 1974. She studied violin with Louis Yffer and Pauline Smith, achieving ATCL in 1976. From 1978-1987 she worked as a part-time teacher, musician and freelance composer based in Christchurch. She was the 1988 Composer-in-Schools with Elmwood Normal School, Cobham Intermediate and Burnside High School, where she first collaborated with Margaret Mahy on several children’s operettas, including 'The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate', and 'Jam'.
From 1989 Felicity became a freelance composer and itinerant composer-in-schools at Elmwood and Cobham. She ran workshops in creative music and movement throughout NZ, and from 1990-1991, in Canada. She received a major QEII Arts Council (now Creative New Zealand) grant in 1989, as well as a major Suffrage Centennial Trust grant in 1993.
Felicity was a member of the CANZ Committee 1990-1991. She married Grant Williams in 1971, and they have a daughter Clemency (b.1977), and son Samuel (b.1985).
See also Bibliography of NZ Compositions (-1982). Full CV on file at SOUNZ
Composed (74)
a three movement suite for primary school orchestra