Music Theatre Wales Ensembl

Violin 1: Miranda Fulleylove
Violin 2: Philippa Mo
Viola: Nancy John
Cello: Tim Lowe
Double Bass: Kenneth Knussen
Flute: Kathryn Thomas
Oboe: Joseph Sanders
Clarinet: Sacha Rattle
Trumpet: Torbjorn Hultmark
Horn: Richard Bayliss
Bass Trombone: Ed Hilton
Percussion: Julian Warburton

Gwion Thomas

Gwion was born in Gorseinon, near Swansea and is a nephew of the famous Welsh/American singer Thomas Llyfnwy Thomas. He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and is a busy opera and concert soloist. With Welsh National Opera he has sung Figaro in The Barber of Seville and roles in Tornrak by Metcalf. With Scottish Opera he has sung Maitra in Vir’s Snatched by the Gods and Godwin in Beamish’s Monster. His numerous roles with Kent Opera include creating the role of Chao Lin in Weir’s A Night at the Chinese Opera and the title role in Monteverdi’s Orfeo. He has a particular association with Music Theatre Wales, singing many roles including Blazes in Maxwell Davies’s The Lighthouse, Mr Punch in Birtwistle’s Punch and Judy and, most recently, Dad in their award-winning production of Turnage’s Greek and Huld in Philip Glass’ The Trial. Abroad he has sung Blazes with Transparent (Antwerp), Eddy in Greek in its Dutch premiere with Taller Amsterdam, and A Water Bird Talk with Opera Theatre Company in Dublin.

Recent concert work includes Elijah in Mold and Schubert’s Winterreise in Loughborough. He lives in Northamptonshire and also teaches at Birmingham Conservatoire.

Caryl Hughes

Caryl is from the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales, and graduated with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in summer 2007.

Operatic and Musical Theatre roles include Maria/West Side Story and Cosette/Les Miserables for Pimlico Opera, Olga/Eugene Onegin and First Nymph/Rusalka for Grange Park Opera, Angela in the world-premiere of Nicola LeFanu’s Dream Hunter, Madama Brillante/The Italian Girl in London and Giacinta/La Finta Semplice for Bampton Opera, Orlovsky/Die Fledermaus and cover Jane Seymour/Anna Bolena for Welsh National Opera, Tiny/Paul Bunyan, Papagena/The Magic Flute and Rita Rat/Fantastic Mr Fox for English Touring Opera, Cenerentola for Iford Arts Festival, Sonya/Sonya’s Story for the tete-a-tete Festival, Cherubino/Le nozze di Figaro(cover) and Dorabella/Cosi Fan Tutte(cover) for Scottish Opera, Sifare/Mitridate (cover) and Orlovsky/Die Fledermaus for Welsh National Opera, Yniold/Pelléas et Mélisande for Independent Opera and Flora (world première of Jonathan Dove’s The Enchanted Pig) for the Young Vic Theatre and The Opera Group.

Caryl has performed in concert with Bryn Terfel at Grange Park Opera, the Hay Festival and for Raymond Gubbay, and with Sir Thomas Allen at the Three Choirs Festival. Her debut disc of Britten’s Cabaret Songs with Malcolm Martineau has been released by ONYX, having performed them at the 2009 Aix-en-Provence and Aldeburgh Festivals.

Recently, Caryl performed the role of Dorabella and Cherubino for Diva Opera on tour and in South Africa.

This is her first time working with Music Theatre Wales.

Ace McCarron

Ace McCarron is a freelance lighting designer based in Cardiff. Through work with such companies as The Fires of London, Music Theatre Wales and the Operastudio Vlaanderen he has designed lighting for many contemporary operas. He is also known for work with many new-writing companies, and with children’s and black theatre companies. He has been a member of Howard Barker’s company The Wrestling School since 1989 and lit their eight-hour-long production The Ecstatic Bible at the Adelaide Festival.

Recent operatic engagements include: The Devil Inside and In the Locked Room/Ghost Patrol – world premieres and co-productions between Music Theatre Wales and Scottish Opera, The Trial by Philip Glass – world premiere, Greek (last seen at the Tongyeong Music Festival), Eight Songs for a Mad King, The Killing Flower (Sciarrino’s Luci mie traditrici), The Golden Dragon (Music Theatre Wales); Elle est Moi et Tote Mich, (Operastudio Vlaanderen); Orlando Paladino (Wiener Kammeroper); The Fairy Queen (Istanbul Music Festival); Waar is Mijn Zeil? (Muziektheater Transparent).

With composer Guy Harries, he won the inaugural Flourish award for an adaptation of Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka.

Samal Blak

Born in the Faroe Islands, Samal trained at the Central St. Martins College of Art & Design and won the 2009 Linbury Prize for Stage Design. Samal’s work was chosen to represent the UK as part of the ‘Make/Believe: UK Design for Performance 2011-2015′ exhibition at the V&A, previously at the Prague Quadrennial.

Productions include: HAMLET (Gothenburg Opera); OTELLO (nominated for the 2010 RPS music award for Opera and music theatre), KHOVANSHCHINA (Winner – Best New Production, International Opera Awards 2015) and LIFE IS A DREAM – world premiere (Birmingham Opera Company); FALSTAFF and FIDELIO (Bucharest National Opera); THE DEVIL INSIDE (nominated for Outstanding Achievement in opera at the UK Theatre Awards 2016), IN THE LOCKED ROOM and GHOST PATROL (winner- South Bank Sky Arts Award 2013) – world premieres, (Scottish Opera and Music Theatre Wales); LES MAMELLES DE TIRESIAS (De Nationale Opera Amsterdam, La Monnaie Brussels, Aldeburgh Music, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence); TOSCA (Opera Ostfold, Norway); EUGENE ONEGIN (Theater an der Wien-in der kammeroper); GIASONE, AGRIPPINA, SIMON BOCCANEGRA, THE SIEGE OF CALAIS, COSI FAN TUTTE (ETO); L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA (RCM, ETO); MACBETH (Geurilla Theatre Seoul); HOW TO BE AN OTHER WOMAN (Gate Theatre, London).

In 2007 he was awarded the Thorvald Poulsen av Steinum award.

For more information go to http://samalblak.com

Richard Baker

Richard Baker is a leading figure on the British contemporary music scene as one of the foremost composer-conductors of his generation. He studied composition in the Netherlands with Louis Andriessen and in London with John Woolrich, and first drew significant attention with two early works – Los Rábanos (1998) and Learning to Fly (1999). Hommagesquisse, typically characterful and inventive, was commissioned by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group – with whom Richard also has a strong relationship as conductor – to mark Pierre Boulez’s visit to that city in 2008. In 2010 Baker’s music was featured in the Philharmonia’s Music of Today series, and the same year he wrote Gaming, a substantial chamber work for cello, marimba and piano, to a commission from the New York-based trio Real Quiet. His second BCMG commission, The Tyranny of Fun, was premiered in February 2013, and led Andrew Clements of the Guardian to comment on ‘how assured Baker’s ensemble writing is, and how vividly it fleshes out its structural frame’. The work was short-listed for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award last year. Three chamber pieces had their premieres in 2015/16, works for solo piano, solo harp, and a string trio. He also wrote a new work for BCMG to conclude their season.

As a conductor, Richard works regularly with the leading composers of our day. In autumn 2012, he led English Touring Opera’s admired production of Maxwell Davies’ The Lighthouse and, in spring 2013, conducted the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe’s double-bill of Handel’s The Triumph of Time and Truth and Gerald Barry’s The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit. The 2012-13 season also saw his debuts with both the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, adding to existing relationships with ensembles including the London Sinfonietta, BCMG, Britten Sinfonia, Composers Ensemble and Apartment House. In spring 2014, he conducted a double-bill of new works by Francisco Coll and Elspeth Brooke at Aldeburgh, the Linbury Studio (Royal Opera House) and Opera North. (‘the wonderfully assured conducting of Richard Baker’ Guy Damman, Times). He was immediately reinvited for the Spring 2015 production of The Virtues of Things by Matt Rogers, and invited again last season to conduct the enormously successful world premiere of 4:48 Psychosis by Phil Venables, based on the play by Sarah Kane.

Gwyneth Glyn

Gwyneth Glyn is a poet, writer and singer-songwriter who lives in Cricieth, North Wales. She was Welsh Poet Laureate for Children 2006-2007 and has written extensively for theatre in Wales, including pieces for Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, Bara Caws, Y Frân Wen, De Oscuro and Music Theatre Wales’ production of Stori’r Milwr/The Soldier’s Tale. She writes regularly for Welsh soap opera Pobol y Cwm. She has performed internationally at WOMEX, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington DC, and at Folk Alliance International in Kansas City. In 2015 she supported Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita on his UK tour, and recently collaborated with musicians from Mumbai on an album called Ghazalaw, which weaves Welsh folk songs with Indian Ghazal. She is currently recording her next solo album.

Find out more about Gwyneth here: http://gwynethglyn.com/