Noted Scottish arranger joins American singer Stella Cole & Danish conductor Mikkel Rønnow Sunday at Copenhagen Tivoli

With 28 IMDb credits and 33 Discogs recording credits to his name, Williams has worked in New Zealand, Australia, the EU, USA and UK, and now comes to Denmark.

COPENHAGEN, KøBENHAVN VESTERBRO, DENMARK, April 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- New Zealand born Scottish composer and conductor, Derek Williams was surprised to be contacted out of the blue recently by noted Danish conductor, Mikkel Rønnow, asking him to refashion arrangements he had scored for Australian actress Caroline O’Connor over twenty years ago at the Sydney Opera House. Williams has been commissioned by Rønnow to score new orchestrations for American jazz singer Stella Cole in two concerts with Rønnow and his orchestra this Sunday 19 April at Glassalen theatre at Copenhagen’s historic Tivoli.

Known for his orchestrations for the Oscar-winning movie 'The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert', also for skating duo Torvill & Dean, Royal Ballet star Sir Robert Helpmann, and a gallery of movies starring the likes of Phil Collins, Russell Crowe and Hugo Weaving, Williams also orchestrated the music for Caroline O’Connor’s 'Night of 1000 Voices' Royal Albert Hall debut in 2007, and is now delighted to be associated with the Rønnow – Cole project.

Williams said, “These arrangements I scored for Caroline O'Connor’s album, 'A Tribute to [Judy] Garland' were recorded at the Sydney Opera House in 2005. We can't wait to hear Stella’s reinterpretation of these songs in my new arrangements on Sunday. I'm greatly looking forward to meeting everybody at the beautiful Glassalen! This will be my first visit to Denmark, at a time of intense geopolitical pressure coming from the US over Greenland, and I can only hope common sense will prevail, and Denmark’s sovereignty will be respected.”

With 28 IMDb credits and 33 Discogs recording credits to his name, Williams has worked in New Zealand, Australia, the USA and the UK, and has a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh, where he has taught Composition and Orchestration since 2007. Williams was elected board member of the Richard Wagner Verband International at Deutsch Oper Berlin 2024, and he is president of the Wagner Society of Scotland. He is also a Fellow of Trinity College London, and an honorary member of the Music Arrangers' Guild of Australia.

As a lifelong political activist, Williams is known for his 'Save Sibelius' campaign, launched 2012 after Avid Technology fired the London-based Sibelius scorewriter development team, who were subsequently hired by Steinberg to develop the rival scorewriter application, Dorico.

STELLA COLE is an American singer known for her interpretations of jazz standards and songs from the Great American Songbook. She gained popularity through social media before establishing herself as a prominent live performer and recording artist in the New York City jazz scene.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cole began posting videos of herself singing on TikTok. An impromptu clip of "Over the Rainbow" went viral, and she quickly amassed a large following. Her rendition of Stephen Sondheim's "Everybody Says Don't" also went viral. Her acclaimed 2023 collaboration with the group on a cover of Miley Cyrus's "Flowers" racked up 6 million views. Cole released her self-titled debut album of of well-known standards that year, produced by Matt Pierson, featuring arrangements by Grammy-winner Alan Broadbent. (source: Wikipedia)

MIKKEL RØNNOW is a theatrical producer and musical director. Since 1992, he has produced musicals, concerts and plays in Denmark. In the years 2001-2004, Rønnow ran the production company Rossen & Rønnow in collaboration with Stig Rossen. From 2009-2013, he was the chief producer at Aarhus Theatre. Since 2016, he has been the sole owner of Mikkel Rønnow Musicals, a producing and general managing company.

Rønnow is the originating producer of the international Lennon–McCartney show She Loves You, which premiered in Copenhagen in March 2022. Other shows include five productions of 'Chess', as well as 'Sweeney Todd', 'Atlantis', 'West Side Story', 'Les Misérables', 'La Cage Aux Folles', 'My Fair Lady,' 'Copacabana' (Scandinavian premiere), 'Grease', 'Cabaret', 'Dirty Dancing', 'Saturday Night Fever', and 'Margrethe' - a musical about the Danish queen. 'Margrethe' was premiered under Rønnow's direction June - September 2023 in The Royal Danish Theatre and The Concert Hall of Aarhus.

Rønnow's musical direction can be heard on numerous cast albums, including the internationally acclaimed complete recording of 'Chess' from 2002 as well as 'Copacabana', 'Grease' and the Lloyd Webber album 'Look With Your Heart', starring Louise Fribo and Odense Symphony Orchestra. He is a member of the Danish Conductors Association. (source: Wikipedia)

Derek Williams
Derek Williams Music
+44 7857 602004
derek@derekwilliams.net

Caroline O'Connor performing Derek Williams' arrangement of "How Lucky Can You Get" at the 2012 official opening of Hamer Hall, Melbourne:

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.