Graham Williams studied viola at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and studied composition privately with Richard Rodney Bennett.

He is a prolific composer and his works have received much critical acclaim both here and abroad as well as winning a number of prestigious awards. His orchestral works have been performed in this country by such orchestras as the English Chamber Orchestra, Scottish National Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and the City of London Sinfonia.

He has also composed a wide variety of chamber music for groups such as Lontano, the Park Lane Group, the Mühlfeld Ensemble, the Vega Wind Quintet and the Feinstein Ensemble. His works have been broadcast on Radio 3 and Classic FM.

His Second String Quartet, commissioned for the Brindisi String Quartet, received its first performance at the Purcell Room in 1996. 1997 saw the premiere of an orchestral work commissioned by the Brunel Ensemble and a chamber piece for the Cambridge New Music Players. 1998 premieres included a wind quintet for the Marais Ensemble, a piece for two flutes and piano for Cameo and a work for 12 female voices and percussion performed by the vocal ensemble, `The Curate’s Egg’ in Oxford.

Premieres in 1999 included a work for the Leopold String Trio and the oboist Daniel Bates called Pan and later the same year the Japanese pianist Junko Kobayashi gave the first performances of Three Nocturnes and Three Haiku for solo piano in London. In 2000 Nigel Hutchison and Mark Fielding gave the first performance in February of Toccata for two pianos in London. In August he was one of the featured composers at the Presteigne Festival where his commissioned work Newton/Bronze for solo viola and 12 solo strings had its first performance. In February 2001 the Capital Oboe Quintet gave the first performance of Before the Song in London. In October 2001 the Solaris String Quartet gave the first performance of his String Quartet No 3 at the Purcell Room.

Plans for 2002 include the first performance of a piece for clarinet, viola and piano for the Chalumeau Trio and a further performance of his String Quartet No 3 at the Presteigne Festival by the Delmé Quartet.

Graham Williams is also artistic director of Music Past & Present, a non-profit making organisation set up to encourage new audiences to listen to contemporary music within a framework of classical pieces.