Post by Sing on Dec 30, 2011 23:46:13 GMT
Hi all
Here's an article I found today- mentioning Hayley:
www.northwalesweeklynews.co.uk/conwy-county-news/local-conwy-news/2011/12/29/amazing-year-for-bryn-terfel-scholarship-winner-55243-30024028/
best wishes
Sing
Here's an article I found today- mentioning Hayley:
Amazing year for Bryn Terfel Scholarship winner
Dec 29 2011by David Powell, North Wales Weekly News
A RISING star of the Welsh singing world has described his whirlwind year since winning a Bryn Terfel-backed competition and how he plans to start a recording career.
Elgan Llyr Thomas, 21, of Llandudno, landed the coveted Bryn Terfel Urdd Gobaith Cymru Scholarship 2010, named after the Pantglas tenor who has been playing in the opera Siegfried in New York this year.
Elgan’s triumph has opened the door for him to work with Bryn himself, Hayley Westenra, Ruthie Henshall and John Owen-Jones among others. He also had Rhydian as a mentor for the Scholarship.
Now Elgan, a fourth year undergraduate at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester who has earned the title role in a Benjamin Britten opera there this winter, also wants to record a CD – and feature the spine tingling version of Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera which helped earn him the scholarship in Aberystwyth.
He said: “Before the scholarship, I got the odd concert every few months or so. I got Conwy Music Festival a couple of times but it was mainly performing in local eisteddfoddau in village halls and chapels.
“But the Scholarship has changed my life in so many ways. The work has been almost constant. After winning it I was asked to sing on a Christmas programme on S4C completely unexpectedly and to do a duet with Bryn himself. That was the scariest thing I’ve done.
“I started panicking like crazy, and the song El Nacimiento was also in Spanish and I’d never sung in Spanish before! So I found the Spanish people in my college and said, ‘Please go through this with me’.”
He added: “It was really daunting because on his album Bryn does it with Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon. And Bryn had just sung it at the Albert Hall with Jose Carreras.
“I was so nervous that after recording it in Cardiff and coming back to the dressing room I realised I’d pulled a muscle in my back.”
In May, the National Urdd Eisteddfod asked Elgan to sing in the opening televised concert with John Owen-Jones.
Elgan’s also been the supporting act for choirs including Trelawnyd Male Voice Choir, Cor Meibion Dwyfor and Cor Meibion Maelgwn – the latter at their September concert in Venue Cymru with New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra, 23.
“She was a lovely person to sing with,” he added.
In October, he met West End star Ruthie Henshall.
“She basically said go and do opera while you can because not everyone has that option. Get your training. If you want to do musical theatre you can always do that later,” he said.
This month he is playing the title role in Albert Herring by Benjamin Britten in his first operatic role at the Royal Northern College of Music’s 700-seat theatre.
“You’re both singing and acting and it’s exhausting. But that’s exactly why I want to go and do it.”
He’s in talks with Welsh label Sain over making a CD.
“In the New Year I’m going to try to find some time to make one. It’s going to be a collection of Welsh and other songs, mainly classical, but including Music of the Night and Anfonaf Angel.
“I’m going to try to get harpist Dylan Cernyw and Annette Bryn Parri to accompany me. Decca say I’m a little young and I’ll be better in five years, but that I am on their radar. I’m currently trying to sort something out with Sain.”
Dec 29 2011by David Powell, North Wales Weekly News
A RISING star of the Welsh singing world has described his whirlwind year since winning a Bryn Terfel-backed competition and how he plans to start a recording career.
Elgan Llyr Thomas, 21, of Llandudno, landed the coveted Bryn Terfel Urdd Gobaith Cymru Scholarship 2010, named after the Pantglas tenor who has been playing in the opera Siegfried in New York this year.
Elgan’s triumph has opened the door for him to work with Bryn himself, Hayley Westenra, Ruthie Henshall and John Owen-Jones among others. He also had Rhydian as a mentor for the Scholarship.
Now Elgan, a fourth year undergraduate at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester who has earned the title role in a Benjamin Britten opera there this winter, also wants to record a CD – and feature the spine tingling version of Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera which helped earn him the scholarship in Aberystwyth.
He said: “Before the scholarship, I got the odd concert every few months or so. I got Conwy Music Festival a couple of times but it was mainly performing in local eisteddfoddau in village halls and chapels.
“But the Scholarship has changed my life in so many ways. The work has been almost constant. After winning it I was asked to sing on a Christmas programme on S4C completely unexpectedly and to do a duet with Bryn himself. That was the scariest thing I’ve done.
“I started panicking like crazy, and the song El Nacimiento was also in Spanish and I’d never sung in Spanish before! So I found the Spanish people in my college and said, ‘Please go through this with me’.”
He added: “It was really daunting because on his album Bryn does it with Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon. And Bryn had just sung it at the Albert Hall with Jose Carreras.
“I was so nervous that after recording it in Cardiff and coming back to the dressing room I realised I’d pulled a muscle in my back.”
In May, the National Urdd Eisteddfod asked Elgan to sing in the opening televised concert with John Owen-Jones.
Elgan’s also been the supporting act for choirs including Trelawnyd Male Voice Choir, Cor Meibion Dwyfor and Cor Meibion Maelgwn – the latter at their September concert in Venue Cymru with New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra, 23.
“She was a lovely person to sing with,” he added.
In October, he met West End star Ruthie Henshall.
“She basically said go and do opera while you can because not everyone has that option. Get your training. If you want to do musical theatre you can always do that later,” he said.
This month he is playing the title role in Albert Herring by Benjamin Britten in his first operatic role at the Royal Northern College of Music’s 700-seat theatre.
“You’re both singing and acting and it’s exhausting. But that’s exactly why I want to go and do it.”
He’s in talks with Welsh label Sain over making a CD.
“In the New Year I’m going to try to find some time to make one. It’s going to be a collection of Welsh and other songs, mainly classical, but including Music of the Night and Anfonaf Angel.
“I’m going to try to get harpist Dylan Cernyw and Annette Bryn Parri to accompany me. Decca say I’m a little young and I’ll be better in five years, but that I am on their radar. I’m currently trying to sort something out with Sain.”
www.northwalesweeklynews.co.uk/conwy-county-news/local-conwy-news/2011/12/29/amazing-year-for-bryn-terfel-scholarship-winner-55243-30024028/
best wishes
Sing
