Elin Manahan Thomas

Elin Manahan Thomas (born 1977) is a Welsh soprano. A specialist in Baroque music, she sang at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May 2018.

Biography

Thomas was born in Gorseinon near Swansea, Wales, the daughter of M. Wynn Thomas OBE, a Professor of Literature at Swansea University, and Karen Thomas. She was educated at the Welsh-speaking Ysgol Gyfun Gŵyr in Gowerton near Swansea, and by the time she was 15 was singing in the Swansea Bach Choir. She won a choral scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge University, where she gained a starred first in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, and completed an MPhil.

After auditioning for Sir John Eliot Gardiner she joined the Monteverdi Choir, singing in many of the concerts of the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage which the choir completed in the year 2000. In 2001 she moved to pursue postgraduate vocal studies at the Royal College of Music in London.

She went on to sing with The Sixteen, Polyphony, Cambridge Singers and the Gabrieli Consort, as well as pursuing a solo career. She is the first singer to record Bach's Alles mit Gott, a birthday ode written in 1713 and discovered in 2005. She first received great acclaim for her 'Pie Jesu' on Naxos' award-winning recording of Rutter's Requiem.

Thomas is a specialist in Baroque music.[1]

In 2006 Thomas married baritone opera singer Robert Davies. The couple live in Brighton, Sussex, and have two sons.[2]

Performances
Thomas, alongside Ben Foster and Peter Davison at the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular in Leeds, 2015

Concert performances include Mozart Vespers in the Mostly Mozart Festival for Harry Christophers; Britten’s Death in Venice for Richard Hickox in the QEH; Mozart concert arias with the Gabrieli Consort in the Barbican Hall; Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Peter Schreier in St John's, Smith Square; Mozart's Mass in C Minor in King's College Chapel; Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice in the Snape Maltings; Haydn's Heiligemesse and Mozart Vespers on a tour of the USA; the Monteverdi Vespers in St Mark's, Venice; Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream in the Palau de la Música, Barcelona; and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in Seoul and Kuala Lumpur. She has performed Judith Weir's King Harald's Saga in collaboration with the composer, and premièred Sir John Tavener's latest work Shunya at his 60th birthday concert. She visited Rochester Cathedral for a Classic FM Concert at Christmas 2008.[3] She performed Handel's Eternal source of light divine during the 2012 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony in London.[4] In July 2013, Elin performed at two special Doctor Who Proms, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the show.[5]

In 2016, Manahan Thomas was the soprano soloist in the première of Karl Jenkins' choral work, Cantata Memoria: For the children, at the Wales Millennium Centre.[6] She also features on the première recording of the work.

On 19 May 2018 she sang Eternal source of light divine at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, accompanied by the event's orchestra and with David Blackadder playing the trumpet obbligato.[7]

On the operatic stage, Thomas has played:

Recordings
  • A Christmas Festival (2008), recorded with the Cambridge Singers, Farnham Youth Choir and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by John Rutter[9]
  • In 2016 Ty Cerdd released her recordings of Morfydd Owen: Portrait of a Lost Icon with Brian Ellsbury the piano accompanist.[12]
  • Her performance of Eternal Source of Light Divine, recorded at St George's Chapel, Windsor on 19 May 2018, appears on the 2018 album The Royal Wedding - The Official Album.[13]

Notes and references
  1. "BBC - Wales - Music - Elin Manahan Thomas". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  2. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/fame-fortune/singer-elin-manahan-thomas-fee-royal-wedding-secret/
  3. "LondonTown.com". Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  4. "KentonLine.com". Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  5. "Doctor Who Proms! - Elin Manahan Thomas". www.elinmanahanthomas.org. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  6. Thomas, Geraint (7 October 2016). "Aberfan: Sir Karl Jenkins' choral memorial to disaster". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  7. Telegraph Reporters (19 May 2018). "Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal wedding: the order of service in full". The Telegraph. Retrieved 20 May 2018 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  8. Heliodor 4765970.
  9. https://johnrutter.com/product/a-christmas-festival
  10. https://johnrutter.com/product/this-is-the-day
  11. Stuart, Keith (30 July 2015). "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture: writing a score for the end of the world". the Guardian. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  12. MusicWeb International
  13. Varga, George. "'The Royal Wedding - Official Recording' album, vows included, released at last! Here is the full track listing". Retrieved 20 May 2018.

Sources
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