Elin Manahan Thomas
“I'd love to draw people to share my world of music making and, of course, this incredible music. It's about communicating emotions and showing people just how human and exciting these pieces are. This is the music I believe in with a passion."
- Welsh soprano Elin Manahan Thomas is fast coming to light as one of the UK’s leading young sopranos.
- Last year she released her début solo album with Universal Classics and Jazz, Eternal Light, which entered the classical charts at number two.
‘…bursting with rhythmic vigour…a great expansive range: intimacy and emotional depth…an absolute joy’ BBC Music Magazine
- Elin has an extensive recording background and is the first singer ever 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 the Rutter Requiem, and was praised as soloist in Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, under Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
- Elin made her début performance at the Lincoln Center New York and the San Francisco Symphony Hall with the Mozart Requiem in 2006, and the Birmingham Symphony Hall with the Fauré Requiem.
- Elin was the subject of an S4C fly-on-the-wall documentary which was nominated in the 2007 Celtic Film Festival.
- Autumn 2007 saw her perform in Classic FM’s fifteenth birthday concert, at Songs of Praise’s ‘The Big Sing’ at the Royal Albert Hall, at the Westminster Abbey Christmas Concert, as well as taking the rold of Belinda in the Orchestra of Age Enlightenment’s production of Dido and Aeneas at the South Bank.
- Recent concert performances include the world premiere of Sir John Tavener’s Requiem in Liverpool Cathedral; Mozart Vespers in the Mostly Mozart Festival for Harry Chrisophers; Britten’s Death in Venice for Richard Hickox at the Queen Elizabeth Hall; 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; Glück’s Orfeo 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 Musica, 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.
- On the opera stage, Elin has played the part of Pamina (Mozart The Magic Flute), The Governess (Britten Turn of the Screw), Micaela (Bizet Carmen), Ninetta (Mozart La Finta Semplice), Arminda (Mozart La Finta Giardiniera), Despina (Mozart Cosi Fan Tutte), Mermaid (Weber Oberon) and Coryphée (Berlioz Les Troyens) at the Châtelet Theatre, Angelica (Handel Orlando), Constance (Poulenc Dialogue des Carmelites), Lucy (Menotti The Telephone), and Night/Nymph in the Armonico Consort’s acclaimed production of The Fairy Queen.
- Elin is in demand for her radio and television presenting. She featured on the BBC 4 ‘Sacred Music’ programme on Easter day singing ‘Allegri Miserere’, and in April 2008 Elin was nominated and shortlisted for Welsh Bafta: Best Newcomer (Presenter).
- Born and bred in Swansea, Elin graduated from Clare College Cambridge in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. Elin went on to study as a post-graduate at the Royal College of Music, and was awarded the Ted Moss and Bertha Stach-Taylor Lieder Prize. In 2005 she was a finalist in the prestigious Joaninha Award.
- Future work includes; Vivaldi Gloria in the Snape Maltings with City of London Sinfonia; Belinda (Dido and Aeneas) in the London Temple Festival; Handel Samson at the Buxton Festival; and a gala concert to close the Llangollen International Eisteddfod.