June Williams, Chairperson

June Williams is both a County and a Town councillor in Carmarthen. She currently chairs the County's Planning Committee. She has been Mayor of Carmarthen three times, the last in 2004/05.

June was born in London but was evacuated with her mother to Hereford in 1939 and lived there until 1974. After a short stay in Barmouth she moved to Carmarthen, where she has lived since 1977. For 25 years she has been postmistress in Johnstown, where she now lives.

Between 1975 and 1985 June worked with the Brownies and Girl Guides. In the recent past she organised a drop-in centre and youth club for disadvantaged young people.

June is currently a school governor on the boards of Johnstown County Primary and Queen Elizabeth High Schools, a Trustee of the Oriel Myrddin gallery, and representative of the County Council on the Ty Ni Family Centre committee. She is closely involved with Carmarthen's Town Twinning programme with Lesneven (Brittany) and As Pontes (Galicia, Spain).

Steve Westmore, Treasurer

Steve Westmore was born in London and moved to Wales in 1979.

He is a director of a small software company working in the healthcare sector.

He came to know of the YCD competition in 2004 when his son Jack first entered. With Jack no longer eligible for the competition, he joined the board of Trustees at the end of 2006. He hopes that the views of a parent may be of use to the board of Trustees and to be able to help with the competition.

Dr Antony Griew, Secretary of Young Composer

Antony was born a Cockney in 1938 and grew up in north London. He undertook his medical training at the London Hospital. After his first three jobs in England he took the post of Government Medical Officer in Malawi for 2_ years. On his return to the UK in 1968 he took up public health, which remained his profession until retirement in 1996. Between 1977 and 1982 he worked in Papua New Guinea at the Medical School, mainly teaching statistics, demography and epidemiology. He came to Wales in 1988 as Consultant in Public Health to East Dyfed Health Authority. The last period of his career was spent on a Welsh Office project into the electronic patient record, his speciality being issues of confidentiality and access.

From retirement on Antony has been a ‘professional volunteer’. As well as being a Trustee of, and Secretary to, Young Composer of Dyfed and a Trustee and former Chairman of Young Musicians of Dyfed, he is on the board of Shelter Cymru. He also does a little work for the British Red Cross. His extra-curricular interests, in addition to music, are food (cooking it and eating too much of it), wine, travel, reading and his family history.

Michael Parkin, Trustee of Young Composer

Michael Parkin is a composer, educationalist and freelance teacher. After composition studies with William Mathias and Jeffrey Lewis at UCNW Bangor, he took up lecturing posts in composition and studies in twentieth century music at Huddersfield Polytechnic and then later at St. John's College in York. He has lived in Pembrokeshire since 1991.

Throughout his career he has been invited to direct workshops and music projects - over 800 to date and mainly in the north of England and funded by organisations such as Yorkshire & Humberside Arts, Nottingham Firebird Trust, York, Leeds and Sheffield city councils, the Yorkshire Dance Centre, York Film Centre and the Tippett Foundation. Drawing on his wide experience of theatre and dance, many of these workshops and projects were of a mixed media nature and included innovative collaborations with artists such as John Kerr, dancers Tony Thatcher and Susie Ater, theatre directors Annie Castledine and Chris Wallis and a music and film project with Michael Nyman. Current work includes a project for music and film at the Wales Millennium Centre and a long-term project in schools in Swansea to guide young children through their first steps in composition.
His work is frequently broadcast and widely performed in Britain, Europe and the U.S. Prizes include the Yorkshire Arts Young Composers' Competition (1978), the MidNAG award (1979) and the 1996 Match TM Composition Award. His work 'Elegy' for solo flute was one of only two British works selected for the 1984 Gaudeamus International Musicweek in Amsterdam. He is a current recipient of an ACW Creative Wales Award. His music is published by Amadeus Direct and Comus. CD recordings are available on the Metier, Riverrun and Late Music labels.

This year (2006), Mike was awarded a Creative Wales Award by the Arts Council of Wales, which he will use to compose a symphony for folk singer and orchestra.

Janet Webb, Trustee of Young Composer

Janet Webb was educated in Lancashire, Ayrshire, West Germany (as was) and at Moray House, Edinburgh, where she graduated as a primary school teacher. She gave up teaching on marriage to a Veterinary Surgeon and moved to Carmarthen and then to Bronwydd Arms, where she now lives.

Janet breeds Siamese cats, keeps Labradors and a small flock of sheep and lambs. Her interests are reading, sewing, knitting, mediaeval history and costumes, and music. She sings in St Peter’s Church choir and in the Myrddin Chorale, both in Carmarthen. As a chorister she sees the need for continuing composition, which is why she is a Trustee of Young Composer of Dyfed.

Emyr Wynne Jones

Born in Carmarthenshire, Emyr studied at Cardiff University, graduating with a B.Mus and Masters degree. He started his professional career as a secondary Head of Music in schools within Greater Manchester from 1979 to 1993. In January 1994, he and his family returned to Wales when he took up the post of Music Adviser for the County of Dyfed. Since 1996 he has worked as an Adviser, principally within Carmarthenshire, but also serving Ceredigion. He conducts Choirs and Orchestras within both counties, and also directs the Three Counties Youth Choir and Orchestra.

Emyr is also on the Organising Committee for Young Ensemble

Mrs Diana Morriss

Diana Morriss moved to Carmarthen 30 years ago. She was Postgraduate Administrator at West Wales General Hospital for 8 years but retired early to work in the voluntary sector.

Diana served for eight years as Parent Governor at Queen Elizabeth Cambria School, becoming Chairman in 1992/93 . She was a member of the committee of the Carmarthen Festival for several years, and for the last four years has been Chairman of Carmarthen Arts, under whose auspices the two competitions, the Young Musician of Dyfed and the Young Composer of Dyfed, originated before they became separate charities.

For the last 18 months Diana has been, trying hard to learn Welsh.