The National Trust is looking forward to welcoming award-winning composer, singer-songwriter and actress Gina Williams as the 2025 Composer in Residence at Gallop House, on the banks of the Swan River in Perth.
“I am super excited to be able to utilise the space to grow existing ideas and write new works, but also to reconnect old knowledge, ancient language and the community it represents to this place through art, songs and storytelling,” said Williams. “I am incredibly grateful and honoured.”
Part of a program run by the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composers House Trust, composers are offered 12-month residencies in heritage-listed homes in Perth and Sydney and a stipend to assist with living expenses so they can focus on their craft. Fellow 2025 Prelude Residency recipient, vocalist Ziggy Ramo, will reside in the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composers House in Paddington, Sydney.
We will soon farewell our 2024 Composer in Residence Suzanne Kozowitz, who attended the world premiere of her choral composition “Elokai Netzor” at the 77th International Cantors Assembly Convention in Minneapolis during her time at Gallop House.
Since the Prelude program expanded to Western Australia in 2016, Gallop House – a two-storey Victorian-style home built in 1877 – has welcomed some of Australia’s most talented multi-genre composers, including Perth songwriter, producer and musician Jae Laffer, award-winning producer Anna Laverty and jazz musician and composer Chris McNulty.
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About Gina Williams
An exceptional composer and performer, Gina is a proud Balladong, Whadjuk, Goreng (Noongar) woman with familial links to the Gitja people of the East Kimberley. Accompanied by guitarist and co-writer Guy Ghouse, her songs are almost exclusively written and sung in Noongar language.
Together they have released four albums and two books, written and performed several works at the Perth Festival and composed two operas – Koolbardi wer Wardong (Magpie and Crow) in 2021 and Wundig wer Wilura in 2024. They also offer a range of workshops for schools, community and corporate groups, sharing Noongar language through music.
Williams was recently commissioned by West Australian Opera to compose a third major work to be staged in April 2026.
