Rev. Nolan Williams, Jr.

Guest Music Director, Choral Arts Program

Reverend Nolan Williams, Jr. is pleased to join the 2006 Amalfi Coast Music Festival as the featured music director for the Nolan Williams’ Inspiration Ensemble.

A musical prodigy from the age of four, his impact on the music industry extends now over a decade. He is a celebrated songwriter, musician, musicologist and theologian, who has appeared in a wide range of venues throughout the United States, as well as overseas in Germany, Portugal, Taiwan and Denmark.

His orchestrations have been performed by the Charlotte Symphony, and Washington Symphony Orchestras. In December of 2003, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro Vincent Danner, premiered Williams’ “Messiah Now Has Come,” a thrilling adaptation of Williams’ hymn tune (of the same name) for choir and orchestra. This performance earned an unprecedented ovation from the critical Charleston arts community.

He has provided musical direction for numerous events of national and international prominence, including inaugural events for U.S. Presidents William Jefferson Clinton and George W. Bush, the National Day of Prayer for victims and survivors of Hurricane Katrina, and the United States Delegation Celebration for the Inauguration of South African President Nelson Mandela.

He has worked in varying capacities with major music industry recording artists, including (but not limited to): Yolanda Adams, Kim Burrell, Daryl Coley, Denyce Graves, Anthony Hamilton, Donald Lawrence, Michael MacDonald, Donnie McClurkin, Diana Ross, and Dionne Warwick. His songs have been released on EMI Gospel, Verity, Peak, JDI and Benson Records by artists like Lamar Campbell, Richard Smallwood, Regina Belle, Margaret Douroux, and the Gospel Music Workshop of America Mass Choir.

Williams’ extensive research of music in the Black church tradition was published in the landmark book, The African American Heritage Hymnal (GIA Publications, 2001). This work, completed by a stellar committee spearheaded by Williams as the chief music editor along with general editor-Delores Carpenter, has received critical acclaim prompting sells that have now surpassed 200,000 books sold worldwide. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, noted musicologist, affirms the book as “the most important addition to Protestant hymnody within the past century.” The significance of this scholarship was underscored when, in September of 2003, Dr. James Billington - Librarian of Congress, hosted a special ceremony to officially receive the hymnal into the Library of Congress Music Division.

Williams has further been featured on PBS, BET (Black Entertainment Television) and the WORD network as a panelist and Black church music historian, including an extensive interview conducted by Pulitzer-prize winning author, Ron Suskind for the PBS show, Life:360, and appearances on Bishop T.D. Jakes’ The Potter’s Touch. Over the past several years, he has been actively engaged in a book tour, conducting radio and print media interviews throughout the country. His presentation on the hymnal at the 2004 Book Expo America generated great media interest, including feature coverage in the Chicago Sun-Times.

A former adjunct faculty member of the Howard University School of Fine Arts (1992-93), Williams is well established as a lecturer, musicologist and music clinician, traveling regularly to conduct workshops at churches, on college campuses and for various conferences.

Ever the visionary, Williams has further conceived in partnership with Walls Communications, Inc., a sterling exhibit celebrating the history and heritage of African Americans called “Freedom.” With major sponsorship from the United States Army, this exhibit was staged over the course of three years in Washington, D.C. on the campus of Howard University; in New Orleans, Louisiana for the celebrated Essence Music Festival, in Atlanta, Georgia at the Fulton County Municipal Center; and in St. Louis, Missouri, in a special wing of the Missouri History Museum.

A graduate of Oberlin College, Williams holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music (piano performance). He is also a graduate of Howard University’s Master of Divinity program, excelling as a Benjamin Mays Fellow and Mordecai Wyatt Johnson Scholar, and graduating a dean’s scholar, third in his class.

Williams serves as Minister of Music for the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Under his leadership, the church has launched the Metropolitan Concert Series presenting quality inspirational-arts programming for the community. This concert series has been immensely successful as Williams has pioneered the establishment of collaborations with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Arts and Humanities Council of Washington, D.C. and the Dallas-based Black Academy of Arts and Letters. In the fall of 2003, Williams directed a critically-acclaimed presentation of the sacred music of American legend Duke Ellington before a capacity crowd. This signature Metropolitan Concert Series performance was a collaborative work with the Smithsonian Institute, and was heralded by the Washington Post as “an entertaining religious-musical spectacle!”

In October 2006, Williams released his debut CD, inSpiration – a project that truly reflects his spiritual maturity, musical creativity and breadth of industry experience! He is currently finishing work on a new book project, entitled Is There a Psalmist in the House? (NEWorks Publications). This new book is already generating great interest, and is slated to be released in 2007.

For more information on Rev. Nolan Williams, Jr., see: www.nolanwilliams.com

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