Paul Carey Jones

Paul Carey Jones (born Cardiff, Wales, 1974) is a baritone opera singer.

Education

Jones attended Ysgol Gymraeg Melin Gruffydd (primary school, ages 4-11) and Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf (secondary school, ages 11-18). He then studied Physics at The Queen's College, Oxford University, where he was awarded a Styring Exhibition in 1993, but "became increasingly aware that the course of the rest of my life was going to diverge from Physics". After completing a PGCE teacher training course at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, he then returned to Ysgol Glantaf to teach Physics for two years, before resigning in 1998 to study singing at the Royal Academy of Music and then the National Opera Studio in London, supported by Welsh National Opera.

Early career

His first operatic roles on leaving the National Opera Studio in 2004 were Osmin in Mozart's "Zaïde" at the Aldeburgh Festival and Escamillo in "Carmen" for Stowe Opera. He has since appeared several times for Scottish Opera as well as at the Wexford Festival, Buxton Festival, for Opera East, Bampton Classical Opera, Diva Opera, and Lyric Opera Dublin.

Work in Contemporary Music

Jones has given world premiere performances of works by the composers Stephen McNeff (the oratorio "Cities of Dreams" to texts by Walt Whitman, William Blake and Rudyard Kipling at the Brangwyn Hall in 2007), Peter Wiegold (his short opera based on the movie "Brief Encounter" in 2004), Jonathan Owen Clark (his opera "Hidden States" in Newcastle in 2004), Richard Elfyn Jones (his oratorio "In David's Land" at St David's Cathedral in 2006), Jonathan Dove (his opera for television, "Man on the Moon", in 2006) and Keith Burstein (the opera "Manifest Destiny" at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005).

His work in contemporary opera has also included the role of Blazes in Peter Maxwell Davies' "The Lighthouse" at the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte di Montepulciano, Sam in Leonard Bernstein's "Trouble in Tahiti" for Second Movement, and that of the real-life figures Andy Warhol in the Italian premiere of Michael Daugherty's "Jackie O" at the Teatro Rossini in Lugo and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and Richard Nixon in John Adams' "Nixon in China" as cover for English National Opera.

Collaboration with Llŷr Williams

As a member of Yehudi Menuhin's "Live Music Now!" scheme he gave over 200 concerts, mainly in partnership with the pianist Llŷr Williams, with whom he continues to work; their debut album of classical songs, titled "Enaid - Songs of the Soul", was released in November 2007 by Sain.

References

* "The Queen's College Newsletter", Autumn/Winter 2004
* "The Western Mail", 7th January 2006
* "Opera News", February 2007
* [http://www.paulcareyjones.com Official Website]
* [http://www.sain.wales.com Sain website]