Phyllis Kinney, a Michigan-born singer who became one of the most influential figures in traditional Welsh music, has passed away.
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The soprano died at the age of 103, the BBC reported on June 30, but did not provide further details about her passing.
Kinney, born in Pontiac, Michigan, on July 4, 1922, discovered Welsh music while studying at Michigan State College under tutor Gomer Llewelyn Jones, a Welsh immigrant. She began performing Welsh songs publicly in 1942 and graduated in 1943, earning a fellowship to Juilliard School in New York. This chance introduction to Welsh musical traditions launched a career that would make her one of the most influential figures in traditional Welsh music.
In 1947, Kinney became a lead soloist with the Carl Rosa Opera Company. While touring the UK, she met folk musician Meredydd Evans in Bangor. They married in 1948 and had a daughter, Eluned, the next year. Kinney fully embraced her new home, learning to speak, read, and write Welsh, while introducing Evans to global folk traditions. The couple also frequently performed duets on the BBC.
Singer Phyllis Kinney Moved to Wales in 1960
After Evans studied at Princeton, the family returned to Wales in 1960, where they co-edited definitive collections of Welsh songs. In 1962, Kinney lent her operatic voice to Evans’ album A Concert of Welsh Songs, an early effort to present traditional music to modern audiences.
In the 1980s, Kinney and Evans settled in Cwmystwyth, where they became pillars of their community, teaching Welsh and conducting folk music research with the National Library of Wales nearby. Their contributions earned them several honors, including an honorary degree from the University of Wales in 1991 and a Festschrift in 2007 celebrating their legacy in Welsh music and culture.
In 2011, Kinney published Welsh Traditional Music, widely considered the definitive English-language study of Welsh vocal and instrumental traditions. After Evans died in 2015, their archives were donated to the National Library of Wales as part of the Welsh Music Archive. In 2019, they received the Welsh Music Prize Inspiration Award.
Paying tribute on BBC’s Dros Frecwast programme, close family friend Arwel Rocet Jones described Phyllis Kinney as a “heroine of a woman” who made a “tremendous contribution in her own right.”
“She was a heroine of a woman, and she has made an enormous contribution in her own right, but together they made an even greater contribution,” Rocet said in part.
Kinney is survived by her daughter, Eluned.