WELCOME TO MY STORY
I’m a flutist, creative collaborator, and researcher, drawn to the intricate relationships between body, breath, and sound.
I first picked up the flute at the age of ten in Wisconsin, with my grandfather as my first teacher. When my family later moved to Ohio, the flute became a constant companion in unfamiliar surroundings. I poured myself into practice, finding expression and belonging through music. In 2007, a scholarship brought me to the UK to study at the Royal Northern College of Music, where I completed my BMus with Honours.
My professional path paused when I became a single mother. After my daughter turned one, I returned to the Royal Northern to begin MMus studies and continue onto an International Artist Diploma at the Royal Northern College of Music. Balancing childcare with quiet, late-night practice sessions, I came to understand resilience not just as a life skill, but as an artistic principle—finding creativity within constraint, and building a career through resourcefulness and determination.
My portfolio career grew quickly: first through Live Music Now!, including a musician-in-residence role at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, and then through freelance work with orchestras such as the Hallé, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Opera North. Around this time, I also became a core member of the contemporary music ensemble The House of Bedlam.
Out of my own history of chronic respiratory conditions came Coming Up for Air, a project now comprising over 150 single-breath flute pieces. Described as “ingeniously inventive” (Tempo), it has been performed internationally, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and PBS Melbourne, and released on Huddersfield Contemporary Records. In 2024, it evolved into a new form: a concerto of 46 single-breath pieces, orchestrated by Larry Goves and premiered with the Luxembourg Philharmonic.
These lived experiences led me to pursue a PhD at the University of Huddersfield, where I explored the visibility of breathing in performance and composition. That research continues to underpin my work today: from creative projects exploring air quality and wellbeing in music-making, to co-authoring landmark advocacy reports on discrimination in the music sector.
At the heart of everything I do is a belief: that music can transform challenge into creativity, and lived experience into connection.
Kathryn Williams is an internationally recognised flutist, advocate, and researcher working across performance and policy to support more equitable music cultures.
Her practice explores the relationships between body, breath, sound, and environment, and how lived experience can inform more equitable and sustainable ways of working in the arts.
She trained in the United States before moving to the UK in 2007 on scholarship to study at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she completed a BMus with Honours, MMus, and International Artist Diploma. She later completed a PhD at the University of Huddersfield, focusing on the visibility of breathing in flute performance and contemporary composition. She subsequently held a postdoctoral research position at the Royal Northern College of Music, where her work explored the intersection of indoor air quality, technology, and musicians’ health and wellbeing through creative musical practice.
As a versatile performer, Williams maintains contemporary and experimental music projects alongside an active orchestral freelance career. She has performed with leading UK ensembles and orchestras including the Hallé Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Opera North. She has recorded extensively for labels including Another Timbre, NMC, RVNG International, and Huddersfield Contemporary Records.
She is the creator and curator of Coming Up for Air, a major long-term artistic and research project comprising over 150 single-breath flute works by composers from around the world. Described as “ingeniously inventive” (Tempo), the project has been performed internationally, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and PBS Melbourne, and released on Huddersfield Contemporary Records. In 2024, Coming Up for Air expanded into a concerto form, developed with the Luxembourg Philharmonic, extending its exploration of breath, environment, and embodiment into orchestral and large-scale performance contexts.
Alongside her artistic practice, Williams is an experienced educator and mentor, having worked with organisations including Live Music Now!, the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, Chetham’s School of Music, and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.
Williams is an active advocate for safety, dignity, and agency in the music profession. She has worked as a Research and Policy Officer for the Independent Society of Musicians and co-authored Dignity at Work 2 (2022), a sector-wide report addressing bullying, harassment, and discrimination and proposing routes to structural reform. She is frequently invited to speak, consult, and contribute to public discourse, drawing on both rigorous research and lived experience to support organisations and individuals.
Across all areas of her work, Kathryn brings a belief that artistic excellence and care are not opposites, and that leadership is rooted in responsibility, attention, and the ability to create conditions in which others can thrive.
