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Rhian Samuel 1944

Addysgwyd Rhian Samuel, a aned i aelwyd Gymraeg yn Aberdâr ym 1944, yng ngwledydd Prydain a’r Unol Daleithiau. Enillodd ei gwobr gyntaf yng Ngŵyl Greenwich (1979) am y gwaith corawl So Long Ago, a hi oedd cyd-enillydd Gwobr ASCAP-Rudolph Nissim (UDA) ym 1983 am y gwaith corawl-gerddorfaol, La belle dame sans merci. Ei gwaith cerddorfaol mawr cyntaf oedd Elegy-Symphony (1981, Cerddorfa Symffoni St Louis, dan arweiniad Leonard Slatkin) gyda Tirluniau (2000) yn cael ei berfformio ym Mhroms Mileniwm y BBC (Cerddorfa Genedlaethol Gymreig y BBC, dan arweiniad Tadaaki Otaka). Yn 2005, perfformiwyd dau gylch caneuon, A Swift Radiant Morning a Wildflower Songbook am y tro cyntaf yng Ngŵyl y Tri Chôr a Gŵyl Lieder Rhydychen yn y drefn honno. Darlledwyd perfformiad o Clytemnestra (1994, a gomisiynwyd gan y BBC) gyda Ruby Hughes a Cherddorfa Genedlaethol Gymreig y BBC yng Ngŵyl Gerdd Bangor yn 2016 ar BBC Radio 3 ar Ddiwrnod Rhyngwladol y Merched yn 2016 a chafodd ei ailddarlledu ym mis Mawrth 2017. Mae ei cherddoriaeth gorawl a siambr wedi cael ei pherfformio’n eang yng ngwledydd Prydain a’r Unol Daleithiau. 
 
Mae Rhian Samuel wedi addysgu ym Mhrifysgol Reading a Phrifysgol y Ddinas, Llundain (lle mai hi yw’r Athro Mygedol) ac yng Ngholeg Magdalen yn Rhydychen. Mae hi’n cydolygu The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers ac wedi ysgrifennu’n helaeth am operâu Harrison Birtwistle. Yn 2004, derbyniodd Fedal Glyndŵr am wasanaethau i’r celfyddydau yng Nghymru ac yn 2016 DMus er anrhydedd o Brifysgol Cymru. Mae’n byw yn Aberdyfi y mae ei golygfeydd dros Fae Ceredigion wedi bod yn gryn ysbrydoliaeth i’w cherddoriaeth.  

Rhian Samuel, born to a Welsh-speaking family in Aberdare in 1944, was educated in Britain and the United States. She won first prize at the Greenwich Festival (1979) for the choral work, So Long Ago, and was joint winner of the ASCAP-Rudolph Nissim Award (USA) in 1983 for the choral-orchestral work, La belle dame sans merci. Her first large-scale orchestral work was Elegy-Symphony (1981, St Louis Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin, conductor) while Tirluniau/Landscapes (2000) was premiered at the BBC Millennium Proms (BBCNOW, Tadaaki Otaka, conductor). In 2015, two song-cycles, A Swift Radiant Morning and Wildflower Songbook, were premiered at the Three Choirs Festival and the Oxford Lieder Festival respectively. A performance of Clytemnestra (1994, commissioned by the BBC) by Ruby Hughes and BBCNOW at the Bangor Music Festival in 2016 was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on International Women’s Day in 2016 and re-broadcast in March 2017. Her choral and chamber music have been widely performed in Britain and the USA. 
    
Rhian Samuel has taught at Reading University and City University, London (where she is Professor Emeritus), and at Magdalen College, Oxford. She is co-editor of the New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers and has written extensively on the operas of Harrison Birtwistle. In 2004, she received the Glyndŵr Medal for services to the Arts in Wales and in 2016 an Hon.DMus from the University of Wales. She lives in Aberdyfi, whose Cardigan Bay landscape has provided much inspiration for her music. 

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