Photo: Marzena Lewandowska
Kathryn Williams is a versatile flutist, creative collaborator, and researcher. Her work focuses on making tangible connections between instrument and body, interrogating ideas around accessibility and physical limitation.
Her current project, Coming Up for Air, centres around creatively overcoming her experiences of chronic respiratory conditions through commissioning over 100 pieces limited to a single breath. Described as "ingeniously inventive" (TEMPO), Coming Up for Air has been performed around the world, featured in Breathe Magazine, Pan Journal, TEMPO, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 The Listening Service and PBS Melbourne. An album of 40 "strangely fascinating" (BBC Music Magazine) single-breath pieces was released in 2019 on Huddersfield Contemporary Records and distributed by NMC.
Kathryn is an active orchestral freelance player, stepping in to play with orchestras across the UK such as Opera North, Hallé Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. She is a core member of contemporary music ensemble, The House of Bedlam, whose most recent album, Enclosure, was released on the NMC label. Her recording of Aldo Clementi's Ouverture for 12 flutes was praised for its "remarkable crystalline clarity, accentuated by Williams’ focused and pure flute tone" in TEMPO. Kathryn has also recorded extensively for Another Timbre (including Ryoko Akama, Tim Parkinson, Allison Cameron, John Cage, Antoine Beuger), RVNG International (Oliver Coates), and NMC (House of Bedlam).
Kathryn is an experienced educationalist, having worked with composers and performers within Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, Dartington Summer School, Aldeburgh Young Musicians, Chetham’s School of Music, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and Junior Royal Northern College of Music. She has given guest lectures at Royal Northern College of Music, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Universities of Cambridge, Huddersfield, Leeds, and York. As part of six years on the Live Music Now! scheme, she served as a Musician in Residence at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, bringing therapeutic musical experiences to young patients and their families.
Kathryn earned a BMus, MMus, and International Artist Diploma from the Royal Northern College of Music and a PhD from the University of Huddersfield. A passionate campaigner for legislative and cultural changes to make music workplaces safer and more equitable, Kathryn previously worked for the Independent Society of Musicians which included co-authoring Dignity at work 2: Discrimination in the music sector, which reported on the experiences of nearly 700 musicians and made recommendations for Government and the music sector.
She is currently a member of staff at the Royal Northern College of Music, where her postdoctoral project explores the interplay between indoor air quality, technology, and musicians' health and wellbeing through creative musical practice.
Her current project, Coming Up for Air, centres around creatively overcoming her experiences of chronic respiratory conditions through commissioning over 100 pieces limited to a single breath. Described as "ingeniously inventive" (TEMPO), Coming Up for Air has been performed around the world, featured in Breathe Magazine, Pan Journal, TEMPO, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 The Listening Service and PBS Melbourne. An album of 40 "strangely fascinating" (BBC Music Magazine) single-breath pieces was released in 2019 on Huddersfield Contemporary Records and distributed by NMC.
Kathryn is an active orchestral freelance player, stepping in to play with orchestras across the UK such as Opera North, Hallé Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. She is a core member of contemporary music ensemble, The House of Bedlam, whose most recent album, Enclosure, was released on the NMC label. Her recording of Aldo Clementi's Ouverture for 12 flutes was praised for its "remarkable crystalline clarity, accentuated by Williams’ focused and pure flute tone" in TEMPO. Kathryn has also recorded extensively for Another Timbre (including Ryoko Akama, Tim Parkinson, Allison Cameron, John Cage, Antoine Beuger), RVNG International (Oliver Coates), and NMC (House of Bedlam).
Kathryn is an experienced educationalist, having worked with composers and performers within Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, Dartington Summer School, Aldeburgh Young Musicians, Chetham’s School of Music, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and Junior Royal Northern College of Music. She has given guest lectures at Royal Northern College of Music, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Universities of Cambridge, Huddersfield, Leeds, and York. As part of six years on the Live Music Now! scheme, she served as a Musician in Residence at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, bringing therapeutic musical experiences to young patients and their families.
Kathryn earned a BMus, MMus, and International Artist Diploma from the Royal Northern College of Music and a PhD from the University of Huddersfield. A passionate campaigner for legislative and cultural changes to make music workplaces safer and more equitable, Kathryn previously worked for the Independent Society of Musicians which included co-authoring Dignity at work 2: Discrimination in the music sector, which reported on the experiences of nearly 700 musicians and made recommendations for Government and the music sector.
She is currently a member of staff at the Royal Northern College of Music, where her postdoctoral project explores the interplay between indoor air quality, technology, and musicians' health and wellbeing through creative musical practice.
