Ceinwen Rowlands

Ceinwen Rowlands (15 January 1905 – 12 June 1983) was a Welsh concert soprano and recording artist.[1]

Rowlands was born in Holyhead, Anglesey, the daughter of William and Kate Rowlands; William was the proprietor of the “Anglesey Emporium”, a men’s outfitter’s. Kate Rowlands (née Jones) was a singer, originally from Cerrigydrudion, Denbighshire. Ceinwen Rowlands took lessons from Wilfrid Jones, a Wrexham-based singing teacher.[2] Her reputation as a singer was made when she won first prize in two successive North Wales national eisteddfods, at Mold, Flintshire, in 1923 and Pwllheli in 1925; she was received into the Gorsedd in 1927.

Rowlands continued to appear in eisteddfods throughout her career, even after re-locating to London, giving the premiere of a Welsh translation of Felix Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang in 1943 at Bangor. She provided one of the off-stage voices for Ninette de Valois's ballet based on Orpheus and Eurydice in 1941.[3] and was a soloist in The Messiah at Cradley Heath in 1945.[4] In 1946 she married Arthur Aaron Walter (died 1967), who held the position of Official Receiver at the London Bankruptcy Court.[5]

Rowlands appeared in concert alongside Kathleen Ferrier, among others.[6] Her many recordings included Welsh songs and works by Welsh composers such as Morfydd Llwyn Owen.[7]

Rowlands' career ended in 1961, and she retired to Rhyl after her husband's death. She died in Clatterbridge Hospital, Cheshire, aged 78.[1]

Notable recordings[8]
  • Decca 2; AM 626; DR 12795-1: Welsh Music (Boyd Neel Orchestra with Mansel Thomas; date unknown)
  • Decca 2; AM 627; DR 12793-1: Welsh Music (Boyd Neel Orchestra with Mansel Thomas; date unknown)
  • Decca 2; AM 627; DR 12794-1: Welsh Music (Boyd Neel Orchestra with Mansel Thomas; date unknown)
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References
  1. Welsh Biography Online: Ceinwen Rowlands. Accessed 1 April 2016
  2. Welsh Biography Online: Robert (Wilfrid) Jones. Accessed 1 April 2016
  3. Stephen Lloyd, Constant Lambert: Beyond the Rio Grande. Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2014. P 299. ISBN 978-1-84383-898-2. Accessed 1 April 2016
  4. "When all the stars came to the Majestic", Black Country Bugle, 19 June 2008. Accessed 1 April 2016
  5. National Library of Wales: Ceinwen Rowlands papers Archived 2016-04-15 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 1 April 2016
  6. Letters and Diaries of Kathleen Ferrier by Kathleen Ferrier & Christopher Fifield. Boydell Press, 2003. P 242. ISBN 1 84383 012 4. Accessed 1 April 2016
  7. OCLC WorldCat: "To Our Lady of Sorrows" (193?). Accessed 1 April 2016
  8. Wenonah Milton Govea, Nineteenth- and Twentieth-century Harpists: A Bio-critical Sourcebook. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995. P 81. ISBN 978-0-313-27866-2. Accessed 1 April 2016
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