Ceinwen Rowlands Explained

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 outfitters. 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

• 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)

^[8]

Notes and References

1. s6-WALT-CEI-1905. Rowlands, Ceinwen (1905-1983), singer. Huw Williams. 2008. 14 December 2021.
2. s-JONE-ROB-1862. Jones, Robert (Wilfrid) (1862-1929), musician. Robert David Griffith. 1959. 14 December 2021.
3. https://books.google.com/books?id=hMzCAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA299 Stephen Lloyd, Constant Lambert: Beyond the Rio Grande. Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2014. P 299
4. http://www.blackcountrybugle.co.uk/stars-came-Majestic/story-20125963-detail/story.html "When all the stars came to the Majestic", Black Country Bugle, 19 June 2008
5. http://www.archiveswales.org.uk/anw/get_collection.php?inst_id=1&coll_id=591 National Library of Wales: Ceinwen Rowlands papers
6. https://books.google.com/books?id=by3Etg9iHjsC&dq=ceinwen+rowlands+recordings&pg=PA242 Letters and Diaries of Kathleen Ferrier by Kathleen Ferrier & Christopher Fifield. Boydell Press, 2003. P 242
7. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/867509187 OCLC WorldCat: "To Our Lady of Sorrows" (193?)
8. https://books.google.com/books?id=YXgITVn1PP4C&pg=PA81 Wenonah Milton Govea, Nineteenth- and Twentieth-century Harpists: A Bio-critical Sourcebook. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995. P 81