Welsh tenor Dafydd Jones is a member of the the Royal College of Music International Opera Studio where he studies with Nicky Spence and Caroline Dowdle. He previously graduated with a Masters Degree at the Royal College of Music, where he was awarded the Queen Mother Rose Bowl.
Upcoming operatic engagements include Fenton, Falstaff at the Verbier Festival and at Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich where he joins the Opera Studio in September 2024.
Recent highlights on the operatic stage include his international debut as Armida for the Bregenzer Festspiele; his role and festival debut as Pastore in John Caird’s production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo for Garsington Opera as an Alvarez Young Artist and his debut in the title role of Albert Herring for Opera North. Other operatic roles include Don Ottavio Don Giovanni (OPRA Cymru); Earl Torlloller Iolanthe (cover, English National Opera); title role in Orpheus in the Underworld (Royal College of Music International Opera Studio) and Joe La fanciulla del West (Verbier Festival, cancelled during the pandemic).
As a song enthusiast, Dafydd joined the 2023 French Song Exchange programme at the Wigmore Hall; was a Young Artist at the 2021 Leeds Lieder Festival; a member of the 2021 Academy Atelier Lyrique at the Verbier Festival and made his debut at the 2021 Oxford Lieder Festival.
Dafydd is passionate about performing new works, premiering the role of Llewellyn the Great in Paul Mealor’s new community opera GELERT at the 2022 North Wales International Music Festival. He also gave the world premiere of Brian Hughes’ song cycle The Green Desert at the same festival in 2021. In November 2018, Dafydd was the tenor soloist in the world premiere of Bob Chilcott’s remembrance work Move him into the sun conducted by the composer.
In 2024, Dafydd won the singers’ final of the Royal Overs-seas League Music Competition and the Lies Askonas competition at the Royal College of Music. He was awarded the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize in the finals of the 2023 Kathleen Ferrier Competition with pianist Caroline Dowdle. Other recent success including winning the Brooks-Van der Pump English Song Competition and runner-up in the Joan Chissell Schumann Competition at the Royal College of Music. Dafydd was also awarded the Ted Moss and Berther Taylor-Sach award in the Lieder Competition. In the summer of 2021, Dafydd won the Prix Thierry Mermod at the Verbier Festival as a member of the Academy Atelier Lyrique. He has also gained many accolades in Welsh competitions, including the prestigious Osborne Roberts Memorial Prize – The Blue Riband at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in 2019.
Dafydd would like to acknowledge the generous support he received as an Aldama Scholar, supported by the Ivor Llewellyn Foster Scholarship at the College. He is also supported by the Amaryllis Fleming Foundation and Geoff and Val Richards.
