WILLIAMS II Joseph V.

Joseph V. Williams II (b. 1979) is an award winning American composer, guitarist and conductor. His deeply programmatic works explore historical, social, and fantastical themes with inventive instrumental combinations featuring the guitar.

Williams’ concerto grosso, Austin Pictures, was premiered at Austin City Limits’ Moody Theater by conductor Peter Bay, the Miró String Quartet and an orchestra of nearly 100 guitarists. His film score for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lodger was premiered in three sold-out performances at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. The Lodger was nominated for several awards including an Austin Critics Circle Award for Best Original Composition and the Austin Chronicle’s list of Top Ten Arts Events in 2015. Zia:Myth and Folklore of New Mexico for guitar and storyteller has expanded the limits of timbral and technical possibilities of the instrument and is the subject of video documentary by Troy University with Dr. Robert Gibson. Williams was commissioned by the 2015 Festival La Guitaromania (Lot et Garonne, France) to create Les Deux Jumeaux for guitar orchestra and story tellers based on an Occitan folk tale from the 12^th Century.

Williams’ music has been championed throughout the Americas and Europe by such notable artists as Adam Holzman, Cavatina Duo, Marianne Gedigian, Estelí Gomez, line upon line percussion, Les Frères Méduses, Bion Tsang, and DaXun Zhang.

As a soloist, Williams has won prizes in thirteen international guitar competitions and presented concerts throughout the United States and in Brazil, France and Spain. He is a member of the internationally acclaimed Texas Guitar Quartet hailed by Classical Guitar Magazine as “Impeccable in every respect.”

Since 2013, he has served as the conductor of the Austin Classical Guitar Youth Orchestra. In 2016, he conducted the New Mexico Music Educators Association All State Festival Guitar Orchestra and is regularly invited as a guest conductor and clinician.

Williams is the Composer in Residence for Austin Classical Guitar. He is the Artistic Director of the Texas Guitar Conference and Instructor of Guitar at the University of Mary Hardin Baylor. Williams earned degrees from the University of Texas (2013, D.M.A.), University of Arizona (2004, M.M.) and University of New Mexico (2002, B.M.). He lives with his wife in Austin, TX. For more information, please visit www.joeplaysguitar.com

“Williams creates works of great beauty, excitement, and musical satisfaction. The kaleidoscopic array of colors he conjures from the guitar is something to behold. Joe knows how to create music of depth while knowing how to entertain an audience and a performer.”

Peter Bay, Conductor and Music Director of the Austin Symphony Orchestra