THE ART OF Sir Bryn Terfel
Sun, Mar. 23, 2025, 8.00 pm - 9.30 pm
Cast
Solist
Bryn Terfel
Bass baritone
Bryn Terfel
Born in North Wales in 1965, Bryn Terfel began studying at London's Guild-hall School of Music and Drama in 1984, first with Arthur Reckless and later with Rudolf Piernay. In 1988 he wins the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship. The following year he takes his exams at the Guildhall School and receives its gold medal. Shortly after, representing Wales, he wins the song prize at the "Singer of the World" competition in Cardiff.
1990 Opera debut as Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) and Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) at Welsh National Opera. Release of Monteverdi's Marian Vespers with Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
1991 debut at English National Opera and USA debut in Santa Fe as Figaro. Release of Jochanaan in Strauss' Salome under Giuseppe Sinopoli.
1992 Sensational Salzburg debut as Jochanaan; Covent Garden debut as Masetto in Don Giovanni; receives inaugural Critics' Circle Award for the year's most significant contribution to British musical life. Release: Angelotti in Puccini's Tosca. Awarded "Young Singer of the Year" by Gramophone music magazine.
1993 Signs exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon; triumphant Vienna State Opera debut as Figaro; sings Ford in Falstaff at Welsh National Opera; "Newcomer of the Year" at the International Classical Music Awards; appears on New Year's Eve at the Berlin Philharmonic's Wagner Gala under Claudio Abbado
1994 Appears as Figaro at Covent Garden and in his Met debut; first solo recitals at London's Wigmore Hall, Salzburg Festival and Florence; first U.S. recital at New York's Alice Tully Hall; soloist at "Last Night of the Proms"; releases: Figaro with Gardiner; Baron Mirko Zeta in Lehár's Die lustige Witwe under Gardiner; An die Musik - Schubert-Lieder, with Malcolm Martineau (Gramophone Award).
1995 Leporello in Don Giovanni at the Met; Leporello and Figaro at the Salzburg Festival; Jochanaan at Covent Garden; recital debut at La Scala, Milan. Release of The Vagabond - songs by Vaughan Williams, Butterworth, Finzi and Ireland (Prix Caecilia, Edison Award, Gramophone Award).
1996 First recital at Carnegie Hall in New York. Publications: Opera Arias under James Levine (Grammy®); Something Wonderful - Songs by Rodgers & Hammerstein (Gramophone Award).
1997 Opera debut at La Scala, Milan, as Figaro. Album with Handel arias under Sir Charles Mackerras.
1998 Hollywood Bowl debut. Publications: Leporello in Don Giovanni under Abbado; Mephisto in Berlioz' La Damnation de Faust and Requiems by Fauré and Duruflé (Classical Brit Award) under Myung-Whun Chung; If Ever I Would Leave You - famous Broadway songs.
1999 Falstaff at Sydney Opera House, Lyric Opera in Chicago and at the reopening of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; sings the title role in Don Giovanni for the first time in Paris; takes the title role in Handel's Saul under Mackerras at the Edinburgh Festival. Release of Nick Shadow in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress under Gardiner (Grammy®).
2000 Met appearances in the four villainous roles from Les Contes d'Hoffmann and as Don Giovanni; Nick Shadow at San Francisco Opera; Berlioz's Mephisto at Edinburgh Festival; first Faenol Festival (Terfel's own annual festival held in North Wales); releases: the "Welsh album" We'll Keep a Welcome and a recital of Schumann songs
2001 Don Giovanni in Vienna, Figaro in Tokyo, Figaro and Falstaff in Munich, Falstaff at the Salzburg Festival; Far East tour. Release of Falstaff under Abbado (Record Academy Prize, Tokyo, Echo Prize).
2002 Don Giovanni at Covent Garden, Falstaff at the Met and Bavarian State Opera, the four villains in Les Contes d'Hoffmann in Paris, Sondheim's Sweeney Todd (role debut) in Chicago; his Faenol Festival receives the Tourism Award for "Best Show in Wales - Event of the Year 2001". Album with Wagner arias (Prix Caecilia)
2003 Concert with Abbado at the Lucerne Festival; the Faenol Festival program includes an opera gala with José Carreras; Queen Elizabeth II awards him the Order "Commander of the British Empire" for his services to opera. His new album with Sissel and Andrea Bocelli, Bryn Terfel Sings Favourites, becomes a bestseller (Classical Brit Award). DVD release: Bryn Terfel Live in Concert
2004 "Artist of the Year" at the Classical Brit Awards. Role debut as Wotan in Das Rheingold in a new production of Wagner's Ring at Covent Garden.
2005 Role debut as Wotan in Die Walküre at Covent Garden; appearance with Plácido Domingo in a concert performance of Die Walküre at the BBC Proms. Debuts in Houston and Los Angeles as Falstaff. Publications: Silent Noon - his second anthology of English songs; Simple Gifts (Grammy®). DVD release of a performance of the Met: Don Giovanni under Levine
2006 title role in Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer at Welsh National Opera and Scarpia in Tosca at Covent Garden. Queen Elizabeth II awards him The Queen's Medal for Music at the BBC Proms. Receives the Shakespeare Prize of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation in Hamburg for his "outstanding contribution to European cultural heritage in the Anglo-Saxon-speaking world" and the Echo Prize as "Singer of the Year." Release of, among others, Tutto Mozart! - popular pieces with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Mackerras
2007 Don Giovanni and Falstaff in Vienna, Puccini's Gianni Schicchi at Covent Garden; Sweeney Todd at the Royal Festival Hall in London (concertante); Figaro at the Met. Opera arias in Munich, Hamburg and Dresden; concert at the Tower of London.
2008 A highlight of the year is the performance at the "Last Night of the Proms" at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Release: Scarborough Fair - popular British folk songs with the London Voices and the London Symphony Orchestra under Barry Wordsworth
2009 Sings Scarpia and the Dutchman at Covent Garden, the latter also at the Bavarian State Opera; opera arias with Rolando Villazón and the Prague Philharmonic at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris; further concerts in the Czech Republic, the USA, Great Britain and New Zealand; festival appearances in Bergen, Verbier and Edinburgh
2010 Highlights include Wotan in Das Rheingold in Robert Lepage's new production of Wagner's Ring at the Met, Falstaff at the Opéra de Monte Carlo, Scarpia at the Met, Hans Sachs in Die Meistersingern for Welsh National Opera, a European tour with the Bad Boys CD program, an opera gala at his Faenol Festival with the Welsh National Opera orchestra and singers including Rolando Villazón, and a recital tour in the U.S. with Malcolm Martineau. CD releases: Bad Boys - rogue roles from operas and musicals from Mozart and Beethoven to Weill and Sondheim - with the Swedish Radio Orchestra conducted by Paul Daniel, and the Christmas album Car¬ols & Christmas Songs.
Performances
photo: Mitch_Jenkins/Deutsche Grammophon
Harfe
Hannah Stone
Harpist
Hannah Stone
Hannah Stone, former Harpist to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, has enjoyed a distinguished career performing at prestigious venues and events worldwide. Recent highlights include performances at the Verbier Festival, Cardiff’s Festival of Voice, the Alison Balsom and Friends concert at the Royal Albert Hall, and a memorial service for Lord Snowdon at St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey. She has also given recitals in Toronto, Vancouver, Italy, Tokyo, and Melbourne.
Hannah’s international performances include guest appearances with orchestras such as the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Sinfonia Cymru, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, and Borusan Philharmonic Orchestra in Istanbul. Notable past performances include the NATO Conference Dinner at Cardiff Castle, where she played for delegates including former U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and former Prime Minister David Cameron, as well as during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee tour of Wales.
Her broadcast work features appearances on Bryn Terfel’s Christmas, Carols from Llandudno, Noson Lawen, and Dechrau Canu Dechrau Canmol for S4C, as well as In Tune for BBC Radio 3. She also contributed to Catrin Finch’s Lullabies album, recorded on the Deutsche Grammophon label.
Hannah has premiered significant works such as St Asaph’s Dance by Karl Jenkins and Amaterasu by Gareth Glyn at the North Wales International Music Festival. She has performed at renowned festivals and venues, including the Edinburgh International Festival, Litchfield Festival, Kings Lynn Festival, Kings Place, London, and the Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace.
A prize-winning harpist, Hannah has received accolades from prestigious competitions, including the Franz Joseph Reinl Competition in Vienna, the Camac Harp Competition in London, and the International Harp Competition in Caernarfon. She was also a National and International Eisteddfod winner.
Hannah completed her studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, where she earned both her B.Mus. and M.Mus. degrees. She furthered her education with an Erasmus Exchange at the Universitat Mozarteum, Salzburg, studying under Professor Helga Storck. She later returned to Wales to study at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, supported by the Victor Salvi Scholarship.
Find further information about Hannah Stone here.
Performances
photo: Keynote Artist Management
Klavier
Annabel Thwaite
Piano
Annabel Thwaite
Recognised as one of the most versatile and charismatic pianists, Annabel has won all the major accompanying prizes, including the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier, Gold Medal, and Richard Tauber Piano Prizes. She has collaborated with renowned artists such as Roberto Alagna, Bryn Terfel, David Kempster, “Only Men Aloud!, the Michael Clark Company and Ensemble Midtvest.
As a Soloist, Chamber musician and regularly collaborating with Sir Bryn Terfel, she has toured and performed in many countries, including the USA at Carnegie Hall and Queens College, Walter Hall and Koerner Hall in Canada, France, Italy, Sweden and Slovenia, and in England, concertos at the Birmingham Symphony Hall and Imperial College, London. As a duo, both with instrumentalists and singers, she has performed at the Royal Albert Hall, Barbican Hall, Cadogan Hall, Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Wales Millennium Centre, St. David’s Hall, Cardiff, and the Machnylleth, Oxford and Leeds Lieder Festivals.
Annabel's discography includes The Scottish Tenor for Universal Records, which was nominated for a Classical Brit Award, a world premiere recording of music by Hilary Tann, a disc of romantic violin and piano works with Matthew Jones, and the complete Violin and Viola works of Benjamin Britten for Naxos, named Chamber CD of the Month by BBC Music Magazine. As a film session pianist, she has recorded the music for the Hollywood movie Awake, the BBC Jane Austen series Emma, The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister and the Spanish film De tu Ventana. Four times the accompanist for the Festival of Welsh Male Voice Choirs, her performances at the Royal Albert Hall were recorded and released by Sain and have been aired on UK television. Further TV appearances include Blue Peter, The Rob Brydon Show and a documentary following a day in the life of Bryn Terfel for BBC 4.
Annabel's extensive teaching experience includes being Director of the Core Courses at the Pro Corda International Chamber Music Academy, adjudicating at numerous festivals and competitions, including the National Chamber Music Festival for Schools. In addition to being an Associated Board Music examiner, Annabel is extremely committed to outreach projects, having been a member of the “Live Music Now!” and “Lost Chord” schemes.
Annabel studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Senior professor Joan Havill, and also at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse, Paris. She was the recipient of numerous scholarships including the MBF award for accompanists, and an English Speaking Union scholarship to study at the Ravel Académie, Franz Schubert Institute, Fondations de Royaumont and Académie Villecroze, France. In addition to all her performing, Annabel is also a qualified Vinyasa Flow Yoga Teacher and gives classes and workshops specializing in the benefits of yoga for musicians at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and other musical institutions and international festivals.
Future engagements include a recitals with Sir Bryn Terfel and Hannah Stone in Carnegie Hall, New York, The Kennedy Centre, Washington and Hamburg Opera House.
Find further information about Annabel Thwaite here.
Performances
photo: Tas Kyprianou
