Music Composer, Conductor and Arranger

Derek Williams is a Scottish resident composer, orchestrator, conductor and record producer with 27 award winning film/tv credits and 34 recording credits.

As commissioned arranger, orchestrator, conductor and musician for international artists Caroline O'Connor, Sir Robert Helpmann, Torvill and Dean, Grace Knight, Frank Bennett, Debbie Newsome, Sir Howard Morrison and prominent Australian screen composers Martin Armiger, Guy Gross and Antony Partos, Derek Williams is also known for his innovative reorchestration techniques on tracks from hit records as exemplified in Cash Landing (Frank Bennett). His commissions have been performed in the Royal Albert Hall, Garrick Theatre and Kings Place (London), at the Sydney Opera House and Hamer Hall, Melbourne, Australia, and at the Montreux Jazz Festival; as a chorister, he has performed at The White House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Westminster Abbey, and King's College Chapel, Cambridge.

He was the orchestrator and conductor of the Victorian Philharmonic Orchestra for Guy Gross's score for Stephan Elliott's Frauds, starring Phil Collins and Hugo Weaving, and his Oscar winning film The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and for Martin Armiger's score for The Crossing, starring Russell Crowe. He was orchestrator for Antony Partos's score for Crush, winner of Best Film Score at New Zealand Film and TV Awards, and was arranger and conductor for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation multi-platinum album Vince Jones & Grace Knight - Come In Spinner from the ABC miniseries Come In Spinner for record producer Martin Armiger. His most recent film score was for Ruaridh M Turner's The Beast in the Storm, which won Order of Merit in the Indie Fest and Best Action/Thriller/SciFi - Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards.

Many of the musical projects Derek has worked on and contributed to during his career have achieved critical and popular acclaim, including LAIFF Best Sci-Fi/Thriller award (The Beast in the Storm), an Oscar (Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert), a BAFTA Award (The Making of Longbird), Best Film Score (Crush), Platinum record sales (Come In Spinner - ABC) and an Australian Aria Award nomination (Cash Landing - EMI Music).

Derek is currently resident in Scotland where he is on the Associated Staff of the University of Edinburgh as tutor and lecturer, in addition to his ongoing work as composer, arranger, conductor and producer.