Biography

The celebrated classical guitarist, composer and renowned teacher William Lovelady first hit the charts in the late 1970’s with two Top-Ten reggae hits. Since then his eclectic talent has led him to compose for and play with musicians as diverse as Shankar, Julian Lloyd Webber, Art Garfunkel and Hugh Masekela.

Today Bill writes for top guitarists Slava and Leonard Grigoryan, Xuefei Yang, Craig Ogden and Amanda Cook - and countless others. He has written both chamber pieces and commissions for solo guitar: difficult to forget is his piece for the memorial of the Omagh bombing.

Bill wrote soundtracks for David Attenborough documentaries and was nominated for an Emmy for the National Geographic documentary “Flying Devils”. His film scores include Disney’s “An African Love Story” and the independent movie “Here Lies” which won Best European Independent Film in 2015.

Bill’s choral music is most deeply moving. His Cantata, to the words of Psalm 104 was commissioned for the 75th Birthday of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. It became a Family treasure, an arrangement, for 4 voices being performed at Prince Philip’s Funeral in Windsor and then in St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, to mark the Coronation of King Charles III. Earlier, Bill’s full Mass was performed first at Westminster Cathedral - Introit and other parts of it are now sung in churches worldwide. A more recent choral work is the Magnificat and Nuno Dimittis commissioned and first sung to celebrate the 900th anniversary in 2023 of St Bartholomew the Great.

His Concerto for Guitar, Violin and String Orchestra was first performed by Stratford-upon-Avon’s Orchestra of the Swan with soloists Craig Ogden and Tamsin Waley-Cohen.

The haunting Isolation Songs were premiered in July 2023 as part of Music in Country Churches, in Norfolk, as was his Guitar Concerto, Serenade for Strings. Commissioned by The English Chamber Orchestra, the Serenade’s London premiere took place at the Cadogan Hall in November 2023, played by the Orchestra with Craig Ogden as soloist.