William Reynolds

Dr William Reynolds has been Musical Director of The Gower Chorale since January 2016.  He is also Organist & Director of Music at St Mary's, Swansea, and Organist of Llandovery College, around which he works as a freelance musician. He is Education & Training Officer for the Royal School of Church Music in the Swansea & Brecon Area, and was appointed an RSCM Examiner in 2012.

He studied music at University of Wales, Bangor, where he gained the degrees of BMus, MA and PhD (his doctoral research surveyed Music and Liturgy in Wales and the Borderlands, c.1485-c.1642). He has had some of his research published in the Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, and Welsh Music History, with Cathedral Press recently publishing some of his performing editions of seventeenth-century anthems.

He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, and holds performance diplomas from Trinity College of Music, London, and the Royal Schools of Music. Before moving to Swansea he worked as a tutor in the School of Continuing Education at University of Wales, Bangor, as a lecturer at Coleg Menai, was Organist at Christ College, Brecon, Sub-Organist at Cardiff Metropolitan (RC) Cathedral, and Organ Scholar at Bangor Cathedral. He has an interest in composition and has written several works for choir. William has recorded as an organ accompanist on the SAIN label, is active as an organ recitalist, and has given solo recital tours of Italy in 2009 and 2016. In 2012 William participated in an international organ masterclass week at the Prins Claus Conservatoire in Groningen, Holland, with the privilege of playing numerous organs dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

In 2012 he was presented with The Archbishop of Wales’ Award for Church Music for his services to church music in Wales and at St Mary's. Recent projects have included a research paper presented at the British Institute of Organ Studies Conference at Birmingham University. Also, William rediscovered, and edited for a first performance in almost 400 years, anthems by William Deane and John Amner – these were performed summer 2014 by the Brabant Ensemble at Chirk Castle in collaboration with the Gregynog Festival and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. During 2015 he worked on a project with Theatr Soar, Merthyr Tydfil to promote the music of Merthyr-born composer E.T. Davies (1878-1969).