Ulagh Williams
Ulagh holds a Masters degree in Musicology from the University of Port Elizabeth and a Performers Licentiate in Piano from the Trinity College of London (LTCL). She is currently studying towards a PhD on South African jazz and gender at Rhodes University.
She was a member of the Standard Bank National Youth Big Band (2003) and has worked as piano-vocalist in the UAE, Oman and Japan (2003-2008). Ulagh co-founded the production company TwoTone Music (2009) and directs and produces music festivals, concerts and shows across various genres.
She co-produced and performed with the Mandela Bay Big Band (2010), Madiba Bay Jazz Ensemble (2012), Isisusa Big Band (2014-2019) and founded the TwoTone Band (2009-) which reached the Top 10 of the ESPAfrika Young Legends competition in 2018. In 2016, she played keyboards and musically produced the 40-piece TwoTone Orchestra featuring Judith Sephuma and Lira for the Divas in Spring concert.
Whilst teaching music at schools across South Africa, she directed choirs, ensembles, big bands and theatre productions. She lectured in jazz and contemporary vocals at Nelson Mandela University (2014-2018) and also at Rhodes University (2017-present).
In 2018, she published the novel Dying for a Song, based on her time in the Middle East and Asia. She composed and produced 16 original tracks for the KaziBantu educational project between Nelson Mandela University, University of Basel (Switzerland) and Novartis (2018), and founded the Talent Factory (2019), an artist development and management programme.
In 2020, Ulagh was appointed as conductor and manager of the Nelson Mandela University Choir where she is involved in interdisciplinary artistic direction, digital music production, arts content creation and the composition of original music. In addition, she works as an arranger, performing artist and producer of original music for corporate clients and documentaries.
Links
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/musicneverfeltthisgood
YouTube: https://youtu.be/CyE9ruLUlos
