RHIAN SAMUEL

Composer Rhian Samuel was born in Aberdare, Wales, in 1944 to a Welsh speaking, musical family. She has lived in Britain and the United States and currently divides her time between Aberdyfi (mid-Wales) and London. She writes orchestral music, chamber music and vocal and choral music and has worked with many of today's foremost classical artists. Her first large orchestral work was Elegy-Symphony (St Louis Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin, conductor, 1981) while her Tirluniau/Landscapes (2000) was premiered at the BBC Millennium Proms in the Albert Hall by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Tadaaki Otaka, conductor. In the USA she was joint winner of the ASCAP-Rudolph Nissim Award, 1983, from The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, for her choral-orchestral work, La belle dame sans merci. In the UK she won first prize at the Greenwich Festival (1979) and has received subsequent accolades including the Glyndŵr Medal for services to the Arts in Wales and an Hon DMus from the University of Wales. To date around 140 of her works have been published.