Bryn Terfel CBE

Bryn Terfel Jones CBE is a Welsh bass-baritone opera and concert singer with a global reputation.

A native of Pant Glas in Gwynedd, Bryn showed a talent for music from a very young age. After winning numerous competitions, he moved to London in 1984 entering the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to study under Rudolf Piernay. He graduated in 1989, winning both the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Award and the Gold Medal. The same year he came second in the Cardiff BBC Singer of the World Competition. Bryn made his operatic debut in 1990 as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at the Welsh National Opera, and sang the title role in The Marriage of Figaro, with the English National Opera in 1991. His international operatic career began that same year when he sang the Speaker in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels. Bryn has since performed in major roles in nearly all leading operatic venues in the world, earning particular renown for his interpretations of the works of Wagner - in 2013, Bryn shared the "Best Opera Recording" Grammy Award for the Metropolitan Opera's recording of Der Ring Des Nibelungen.

He is an active patron of the Welsh language and Welsh culture, and is a member of the Gorsedd. Bryn started the Faenol Festival (2000-2009) an annual music festival featuring internationally famous opera singers as well as popular Welsh artists. He also launched the Bryn Terfel Foundation in 2008 to boost the arts in Wales – the Foundation works alongside Welsh National Opera and Cardiff Singer of the Singer of the World to help recently graduating singers with debts to get started in their careers. Bryn is President of Shelter Cymru and Patron of Bobath Children's Therapy Centre Wales, which provides specialist therapy to children with have cerebral palsy.