Scottish arranger joins American singer Stella Cole & Danish conductor Mikkel Rønnow Sunday at Copenhagen Tivoli

With 28 IMDb credits and 33 Discogs recording credits, Williams has worked in New Zealand, Australia, the EU, USA and UK.

“We are very much looking forward to hearing Stella Cole’s reinterpretation of songs I originally scored for Caroline O’Connor at the Sydney Opera House in 2005.” — Derek Williams

EDINBURGH, UNITED KINGDOM — New Zealand born Scottish composer and conductor, Derek Williams was contacted recently by Danish conductor, Mikkel Rønnow, asking him to refashion arrangements he had scored for Australian actress Caroline O’Connor over twenty years ago at the Sydney Opera House. Williams has been commissioned by Rønnow to score new orchestrations for American jazz singer Stella Cole in two concerts with Rønnow and his orchestra this Sunday 19 April at Glassalen theatre at Copenhagen’s historic Tivoli.

Known for his orchestrations for the Oscar-winning movie ‘The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’, also for skating duo Torvill & Dean, Royal Ballet star Sir Robert Helpmann, and a gallery of movies starring notable actors such as Phil Collins, Russell Crowe and Hugo Weaving, Williams also orchestrated the music for Caroline O’Connor’s ‘Night of 1000 Voices’ Royal Albert Hall debut in 2007.

With 28 IMDb credits and 33 Discogs recording credits, Williams has worked in New Zealand, Australia, the EU, USA and UK, and has a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh, where he has taught Composition and Orchestration since 2007. Williams was elected board member of the Richard Wagner Verband International at Deutsch Oper Berlin 2024, and he is Chair of the Wagner Society of Scotland. He is also a Fellow of Trinity College London, and an honorary member of the Music Arrangers’ Guild of Australia.

Williams said, “These arrangements I scored for Caroline O’Connor’s album, ‘A Tribute to [Judy] Garland’ were recorded at the Sydney Opera House in 2005. We are very much looking forward to hearing Stella’s reinterpretation of these songs in my new arrangements on Sunday. This will be my first visit to Denmark, at a time of intense geopolitical pressure coming from the US over Greenland, and I can only hope common sense will prevail, and Denmark’s sovereignty will be respected.”

As a lifelong political activist, Williams is known for his ‘Save Sibelius’ campaign, launched 2012 after Avid Technology fired the London-based Sibelius scorewriter development team, who were subsequently hired by Steinberg to develop the rival scorewriter application, Dorico, which Williams also uses to score arrangements.

Williams will be present in the Glassalen Theatre on Sunday for both performances.

Caroline O’Connor performing Derek Williams’ arrangement of “How Lucky Can You Get” at the 2012 official opening of Hamer Hall, Melbourne: