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Esme Lewis, sometimes written as Esmé Lewis, was a Welsh singer. She was a member of the BBC Welsh Singers, and was regularly seen on the television program Gwlad y Gân from 1958 to 1964.

Early life and education

Lewis was born in Caerau, Maesteg. She was performing music from early childhood. She won a Glamorgan Vocal Scholarship to further her musical studies, and graduated from University College, Cardiff, with honours.

Career

Lewis won her first prize for singing as a three-year-old, and was first heard on BBC at the age of 8. She won a gold medal at the National Eisteddfod, for a duet with Aldwyn Humphreys. She was a soprano singer, and played guitar, harp and lute, while performing traditional and popular songs in both Welsh and English. She performed at the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall. She was a frequent singer on the ITV program Gwlad y Gân from 1958 to 1964. In 1961, she presented an episode of Sprigyn o Rosmari, a BBC television series about Welsh folk music. In 1976, she appeared on The Folk Club, on BBC Wales. "I spend so much time entertaining other people that I hardly ever have time to get entertained myself," she told an interviewer in 1959.

Lewis toured with other British and Irish folk musicians in Australia and New Zealand in 1966. In the 1970s she was a senior lecturer at Cardiff College of Education, and toured in the United States as a soloist with a Welsh men's choir. She also composed songs and produced records.

Recordings

• Welsh Folk Songs with Guitar (1952, with Grace G. Davies)
• Folk Songs in Welsh (1965)
• Twelve Days of Christmas (1965, with Patrick Shuldham-Shaw)
• Oats And Beans And Barley (1966, with Patrick Shuldham-Shaw and a children's choir)
• Alawon Gwerin Cymru (1966)
• Songs of Wales (1969, with the Band of the Welsh Guards)

Personal life

Lewis married scholar Iwan James Morgan [cy], who died in 1966. Her second husband was Dr. John Bradley Jones.

References

1. "Star of Caerau". The Glamorgan Gazette. 1974-11-29. p. 7. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
2. "Honours for five persons". The Glamorgan Gazette. 1982-03-25. p. 10. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
3. ^ "Awards for nurses trained at Maesteg hospital". The Glamorgan Gazette. 1974-02-22. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
4. ^ "Folk-singer won her first prize at 3!". Western Mail. 1959-11-18. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
5. "Ann's finally got to be head girl!". Wales Online. 2007-10-03. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
6. Esme Lewis, Discogs.
7. "An evening of musical magnificence". Pontypridd and Llantrisant Observer. 1967-10-13. p. 9. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
8. "Folk Music". Daily Post (Merseyside ed.). 1961-03-08. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
9. "Folk club singer". The Glamorgan Gazette. 1976-02-26. p. 10. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
10. "Esme Lewis in Folk-Song Festival". The Glamorgan Gazette. 1966-03-11. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
11. Oliva, Mark (1975-03-06). "Wide concert variety available in Reno Sunday". Reno Gazette-Journal. p. 15. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
12. "Choir will sing here". The Times Standard. 1975-03-05. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
13. Lewis, Esme (1952), Welsh Folk Songs (in Welsh), Internet Archive, His Master's Voice, retrieved 2024-03-29
14. Plant, David (2017). "Resources in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library: The Pat Shaw Archive". Folk Music Journal. 11 (2): 43. ISSN 0531-9684. JSTOR 44987621.
15. Patrick Shuldham-Shaw; Esme Lewis; The Choir Of Hampstead Garden Suburb Junior School (1966), Oats And Beans And Barley, Internet Archive, Argo, retrieved 2024-03-29
16. Jones, John Graham. "Morgan, Iwan James (1904 - 1966), extra-mural tutor and politician". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 2024-03-29.

• Alumni of Cardiff University
• People from Maesteg
• Welsh singers