William Mathias

William Mathias (b Whitland, Carmarthenshire, 1 Nov 1934; d Menai Bridge, Anglesey, 29 July 1992). Welsh composer and pianist.

He studied at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth (BMus 1956) with Ian Parrott, among others, and at the RAM (scholarship winner, 1956), where his teachers included Lennox Berkeley (composition) and Katin (piano). From 1959 to 1968 he was a lecturer at the University College of North Wales, Bangor. He was elected a Fellow of the RAM in 1965 and the following year received the DMus from the University of Wales. Appointed to a senior lectureship at Edinburgh University in 1968, he returned to Wales on the death of his father in 1969. The following year he was appointed to a professorship at Bangor, a post he held until his retirement in 1987. He founded the North Wales Music Festival at St Asaph Cathedral in 1972 and continued to serve as its director until his death. His honours include the Bax Society composition prize (1968), appointment as CBE (1985) and an honorary doctorate from Westminster Choir College (1987). From 1990 to 1991 he served as president of the ISM.