Rhian Samuel

Last updated

Rhian Samuel (born Aberdare, Wales, 1944) is a Welsh composer who resided in the USA for many years. She has composed over 140 published works, including orchestral, chamber, vocal, and choral music. [1] [2] She now divides her time between mid-Wales and London. She currently resides in the coastal town of Aberdyfi. [3]

Contents

Composition

Samuel's orchestral music spans from Elegy-Symphony (St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin, cond., 1981) to Tirluniau/Landscapes (BBC commission, BBC NOW, BBC Proms 2000); in 1983 she won the ASCAP/Rudolf Nissim Prize (USA) for her choral/orchestral work, La Belle Dame sans Merci. A BIS CD containing her BBC-commissioned work for soprano and orchestra, Clytemnestra, was short listed for a Gramophone Award in 2020. [4] [5] [6] [7] As well as orchestral song-cycles (Clytemnestra and The White Amaryllis), she has written a large number of voice-and-piano cycles for major festivals including the Oxford Lieder Festival (Wildflower Songbook, to poems by Anne Stevenson), the Three Choirs Festival (A Swift Radiant Morning, to poems by WWI poet, Charles Sorley, the Fishguard Festival, UK (Cerddi Hynafol/Ancient Songs, to anonymous early Welsh texts), and the Ludlow English Song Weekend (The Moon and I, to poems by Anne Stevenson and Tabitha Hayward) and has written music for choirs including New College Choir (Oxford), the BBC Singers, and a number of American college choirs as well as her own choirs at Reading University and City University, London. She has also written about music: as co-editor of the New Grove (Norton) Dictionary of Women Composers, [8] she has been prominent on issues concerning the reception of music by women. She has also written on the operas of Harrison Birtwistle; she was commissioned by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to write programme essays on both Gawain and The Minotaur and subsequently published diaries of their first productions. [9] Amongst many CDs which contain her compositions, one entirely devoted to her chamber music, Light and Water, is issued on the Deux-Elles label, and another, Songs of Earth and Air, to her music for baritone and piano, on the Lorelt label. In 2006 she was awarded the Glyndŵr Award for an Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Wales and in 2016 she was awarded an Hon DMus by the University of Wales.

Her Path Through the Woods for recorder and strings was premiered at Temple of Peace, Cardiff, in April 2011 by Pamela Thorby and the Welsh Sinfonia, conducted by Mark Eager. [2]

Education

Samuel was educated at Reading University (BA, BMus) in the UK and Washington University in St. Louis (MA, PhD), and joined the teaching staff of City University, London in 1995, where she became Professor of Music in 1999 and is now Emeritus Professor. While there, she also supervised the research of post-graduate students at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Later, she taught composition at Magdalen College, Oxford (2007–2016). Previously, she taught at the University of Reading (1984–95, as Head of Department, 1993–95) and at the St. Louis Conservatory, St. Louis. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward German</span> English musician and composer (1862–1936)

Sir Edward German was an English musician and composer of Welsh descent, best remembered for his extensive output of incidental music for the stage and as a successor to Arthur Sullivan in the field of English comic opera. Some of his light operas, especially Merrie England, are still performed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Granville Bantock</span> British composer and conductor (1868–1964)

Sir Granville Ransome Bantock was a British composer of classical music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of Wales</span> Music associated with Wales

The Music of Wales, particularly singing, is a significant part of Welsh national identity, and the country is traditionally referred to as "the land of song".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Berkeley</span> British composer and broadcaster on music

Michael Fitzhardinge Berkeley, Baron Berkeley of Knighton, is an English composer, broadcaster on music and non-party political member of the House of Lords, speaking as an advocate for the arts, contemporary music and music education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Mary Smith</span> English composer (1839–1884)

Alice Mary Smith was an English composer. Her compositions included two symphonies and a large collection of choral works, both sacred and secular.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace Williams</span> Welsh composer (1906–1977)

Grace Mary Williams was a Welsh composer, generally regarded as Wales's most notable female composer, and the first British woman to score a feature film.

Roxanna Panufnik is a British composer of Polish descent. She is the daughter of the Polish composer and conductor Sir Andrzej Panufnik and his second wife Camilla, née Jessel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Hickox</span> English conductor

Richard Sidney Hickox was an English conductor of choral, orchestral and operatic music.

John Hardy is an English-born composer who has been commissioned by the Arts Council/National Lottery, the BBC, Welsh National Opera and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, among others. His work includes opera, choral and orchestral pieces, site-specific theatre events and film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mansel Thomas</span> Welsh composer

Mansel Treharne Thomas, was a Welsh composer and conductor, who worked mainly in South Wales. He was one of the most influential musicians of his generation, known as a composer, conductor and adjudicator. He was for many years employed by the BBC and promoted the careers of many composers and performers. He himself wrote vocal, choral, instrumental, band and orchestral music, specialising in setting songs and poetry. Many of his orchestral and chamber music pieces are based on Welsh folk songs and dances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Nally</span> Musical artist

Donald Nally is an American conductor, chorus master, and professor of conducting, specializing in chamber choirs, opera, and new music. He is conductor of the professional new-music choir, The Crossing, based in Philadelphia. He is the director of both the Westminster Choir and Westminster Symphonic Choir at Westminster Choir College in New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guto Puw</span> British composer (born 1971)

Guto Pryderi Puw is a Welsh composer, university lecturer and conductor. He is considered to be one of the most prominent Welsh composers of his generation and a key figure in current Welsh music. Puw's music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and been featured on television programmes for the BBC and S4C. He has twice been awarded the Composer's Medal at the National Eisteddfod.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Mealor</span> Welsh composer (born 1975)

Paul Mealor CLJ FLSW is a Welsh composer. A large proportion of his output is for chorus, both a cappella and accompanied. He came to wider notice when his motet Ubi Caritas et Amor was performed at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2011. He later composed the song "Wherever You Are", which became the 2011 Christmas number one in the UK Singles Chart. He has also composed two operas, four symphonies, concerti and chamber music.

Peter Charles Arthur Wishart was an English composer and academic. His compositions include several neo-classical operas, orchestral and chamber pieces, and a large amount of church music. Critics have commented on Wishart's strong and individual lyricism and his admiration for the music of Igor Stravinsky.

Cecilia McDowall is a British composer, particularly known for her choral compositions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juliette Pochin</span>

Juliette Louise B. Pochin is a Welsh classically trained mezzo-soprano singer, composer/arranger, and record producer. She is known not only for her performances in operas and as a classical recitalist but also for her recordings of operatically styled crossover music. Morgan Pochin Music Productions Ltd, the company she formed with her husband James Morgan, is known for its record productions for artists such as Katherine Jenkins and Alfie Boe, as well as its arrangements for film and television scores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Joseph</span> English composer (1894–1929)

Jane Marian Joseph was an English composer, arranger and music teacher. She was a pupil and later associate of the composer Gustav Holst, and was instrumental in the organisation and management of various of the music festivals which Holst sponsored. Many of her works were composed for performance at these festivals and similar occasions. Her early death at age 35, which prevented the full realisation of her talents, was considered by her contemporaries as a considerable loss to English music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ina Boyle</span> Irish composer

Ina Boyle was an Irish composer. Her compositions encompass a broad spectrum of genres and include choral, chamber and orchestral works as well as opera, ballet and vocal music. While a number of her works, including The Magic Harp (1919), Colin Clout (1921), Gaelic Hymns (1923–24), Glencree (1924-27) and Wildgeese (1942), received acknowledgement and first performances, the majority of her compositions remained unpublished and unperformed during her lifetime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joanna Marsh</span> British composer

Joanna Marsh is a British composer of choral and orchestral works, who has lived in Dubai since 2007.

John Rippiner Heath was a British composer, violinist and physician who lived and worked for most of his life in Wales.

References

  1. Tŷ Cerdd Music Centre Wales – Rhian Samuel (1944)
  2. 1 2 3 "Rhian Samuel". Stainer & Bell . Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  3. rhiansamuel.com
  4. BBC Music Magazine, March 2020, 80
  5. The Times, 31 Jan 2020
  6. Gramophone, Feb. 2020, 72
  7. Musicweb International
  8. The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers, 1994. ISBN   0-333-51598-6
  9. Cambridge Opera Journal, 4:2, July 1992, pp. 163–78 and 20:2, November 2008, pp. 215–36.