Judah Williams

Judah Williams is a 17-year-old pianist and composer from Vancouver, Canada. He is currently enrolled in his fourth and final year of the Young Artist Collegiate Program at the Vancouver Academy of Music, where he is completing a double major in piano performance with Ian Parker and composition with Edward Top. Judah has also studied the cello, is the principal cellist of his high school orchestra, and enjoys playing chamber music.

From a young age, Judah has been an active performer and award winner at music festivals, competitions, and events in BC. In 2023, he was invited to perform at a Steinway Piano Competition Canada Winners Concert at Carnegie Hall and the Cremona International Music Academy and Festival where he performed as a piano soloist and chamber musician and received a best performance of a modern work award for his composition for solo piano, Spearheaded Pines.

Judah has received several composition awards, including a Canadian Music Centre Barbara Pentland Outstanding Composition Award. His work has been performed by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (Cosmic Abyss, Jean Coulthard Readings and Mentorship Program 2023), Standing Wave Ensemble (Within the Summits, 2023; Gallery Gone Wrong, 2022), soprano Robyn Driedger-Klassen (Too Cold for Me, 2023), and Valerie Whitney (Fragments for solo horn in F, 2022).

Judah’s orchestral work, Cosmic Abyss, will be premiered in concert by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra at the Winnipeg New Music Festival 2024. Current projects include a work for string orchestra with the Victoria Symphony vsNEW New Explorations Program 2023-2024, and a piano concerto, which he will perform together with the Chilliwack Symphony Orchestra (CSO) at the CSO Piano Extravaganza 2024.

Judah is grateful to his composition teachers Edward Top and Stefan Hintersteininger, and mentor composers Eugene Astapov, Amy Brandon, Vivian Fung, Marcus Goddard, Keith Hamel, Jacquie Leggat, Rodney Sharman, Haralabos Stafylakis, Andrew Staniland, and Rita Ueda.