Rhian Samuel
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Rhian Samuel | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1944 (age 81–82) |
| Occupation | Composer |
Rhian Samuel (born Aberdare, Wales, 1944) is a Welsh composer who resided in the USA for many years. She has composed over 140 published works, including orchestral, chamber, vocal, and choral music.[1][2] She now divides her time between mid-Wales and London. She currently resides in the coastal town of Aberdyfi.[3]
Samuel's orchestral music spans from Elegy-Symphony (St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin, cond., 1981) to Tirluniau/Landscapes (BBC commission, BBC NOW, BBC Proms 2000); in 1983 she won the ASCAP/Rudolf Nissim Prize (USA) for her choral/orchestral work, La Belle Dame sans Merci. A BIS CD containing her BBC-commissioned work for soprano and orchestra, Clytemnestra, was short listed for a Gramophone Award in 2020.[4][5][6][7] She has also written about music: as co-editor of the New Grove (Norton) Dictionary of Women Composers,[8] she has been prominent on issues concerning the reception of music by women. She has also written on the operas of Harrison Birtwistle; she was commissioned by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to write programme essays on both Gawain and The Minotaur and subsequently published diaries of their first productions.[9]
Her Path Through the Woods for recorder and strings was premiered at Temple of Peace, Cardiff, in April 2011 by Pamela Thorby and the Welsh Sinfonia, conducted by Mark Eager.[2]
