Operatic icon Bryn Terfel will join talented young singers in a concert to celebrate 150 years of the Department of Welsh and Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth University next month.
The world-renowned singer will be joined by Wales’s Archdruid, Professor Mererid Hopwood, and pianist Zoe Smith on 28 July at Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
The concert will include songs by some of Wales’s most prominent composers and with lyrics by some of the country’s best-known poets.
Over the years, Aberystwyth University Fellow Bryn Terfel and Mererid Hopwood have collaborated on various concerts. In November last year, together with the Welsh College of Music and Drama, they celebrated the work of some of Wales’s notable composers, in particular Meirion Williams, in a performance called ‘Pan ddaw’r nos’.
Meirion Williams was one of the most prominent students at Aberystwyth’s Music Department where he studied under the direction of Henry Walford Davies in the early 1920s.
As the Department of Welsh and Celtic Studies marks its 150th anniversary, the opportunity was taken to bring ‘Pan ddaw’r nos’ to Aberystwyth and to the summer Music Festival (Musicfest) programme with a new combination of songs.
Head of the Welsh Language and Celtic Studies Department at Aberystwyth University Dr Rhianedd Jewell said:
“We are really looking forward to this special concert to mark the 150th anniversary of the Department of Welsh and Celtic Studies. This is an opportunity to welcome alumni, current and future students to celebrate the long and successful history of the Department and the importance of words, poetry and music to our work.”
When founded in 1872, Aberystwyth was the first University College of Wales and its first Welsh Professor, Daniel Silvan Evans, was appointed in 1875.
The Department of Welsh and Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth University can lay claim to some of Wales’s most brilliant writers and scholars as part of its history, including T. H. Parry-Williams, T. Gwynn Jones, D. Gwenallt Jones (‘Gwenallt’), Bobi Jones and Mihangel Morgan.
Since the 1980s, many of the Department’s students went on to win major literary prizes at the Urdd and National Eisteddfods.
Robin Llywelyn, William O. Roberts, Myrddin ap Dafydd, Iwan Llwyd, Twm Morys, Lleucu Roberts, Meleri Wyn James, Catrin Dafydd, Marged Tudur, Carwyn Eckley and Iestyn Tyne are among the Department’s alumni who went on to become leading Welsh writers.
Professor Mererid Hopwood from Aberystwyth University added:
“The concert will be an opportunity to celebrate the work of some of Wales’s most famous poets who have inspired music composers throughout the centuries and have been a cornerstone of the Department’s studies.
“We’ll hear poems by writers such as T Gwynn Jones, who has direct links to the Department, together with the work of other well-known poets such as Elfed, Crwys, Eifion Wyn and Ceiriog. The concert will combine these songs from Wales with songs from Germany, France and Austria and offer an opportunity to enjoy the genius of Bryn Terfel alongside some of the best student voices from the Welsh College of Music and Drama.”
