Tomos Owen Jones

Grant support from the James Pantyfedwen Foundation has given me the opportunity to achieve a distinction on the MMus Composer-Performer course at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. This is an intensive two-year Master’s course studying both music composition and performance full-time, and I am the first person to do so as a composer and classical singer.

Over the past two years, the course has given me the opportunity to compose a large number of pieces for a wide variety of performances. These have included my first chamber opera, premiered at Atmospheres Festival Cardiff, my first song cycle (written about the cost of living for a fundraising concert for Cardiff Foodbank), and chamber works performed at Leeds Lieder Festival, The National Eisteddfod in Gwynedd, and by ensembles including the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Alongside this, I formed and musically directed a small-scale opera company at college, and recently conducted our own one-hour arrangement of Humperdink’s opera Hansel and Gretel.

Additionally, I have gained a large amount of singing experience on the course, performing operatic roles including L’Aumonier in Poulanc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, Monsieur Vogelsang in Mozart’s Der Shauspieldirektor, and covering Eisenstein in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, alongside a number of concert and opera scenes performances. Outside of college, I sang the role of Semyon Semyonovitch in WNO Young Company’s production of Shostakovitch’s Cherry Town, Moscow, and in the chorus of Random Opera’s La Sonnambula.

The course has been hugely exciting and inspiring but also incredibly demanding, which has made acquiring regular work to finance the course difficult. Thanks to the support of The James Pantyfedwen Foundation, I have been able to make the most of a huge number of really exciting professional opportunities during my time on the course. I hope to create a freelance career as a singer, composer and conductor, and this course has been invaluable in gaining a huge amount of experience ready to start my professional career.