Lunchtime Chamber Concert 1: Cancelled due to illness

Programme to include songs by Fauré and Strauss.

Free Entry, exit donations gratefully received to support the concert series. 

Morgana Warren-Jones

Morgana recently won both the prestigious Frederic Cox Award for Singing and the Kennedy Strauss Award competitions at the RNCM where she is a scholarship student on the Postgraduate Diploma course, under the tutelage of Hilary Summers. Born in Bangor, she previously read Music at the University of Leeds, spending a year studying voice at the Strasbourg Conservatoire.

Whilst at the RNCM, Morgana has performed the role of Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro and the title role in Menotti’s The Medium, as well as Medoro Orlando, Augusta Tabor The Ballad of Baby Doe, Mercédès Carmen for RNCM opera scenes. This summer she joined Buxton International Festival as a Young Artist singing in the chorus for Rossini’s La donna del lago. Later this year she will perform the role of Vava in Shostakovich’s Cherry Town, Moscow (WNO Youth Company) and cover the role of Coll in Anna Appleby’s Drought (RNCM & BBC Philharmonic).

A keen recitalist, Morgana has been a member of the RNCM Songsters throughout her studies and recently performed Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder accompanied by NEW Sinfonia at St Asaph Cathedral. She looks forward to presenting more song repertoire this year including Rodrigo’s Tres canciones españolas with classical guitar, works by Stephen Hough accompanied by the composer, and a lunchtime recital for Leeds Lieder at Leeds Conservatoire.

Morgana was previously a Serena Fenwick Young Artist for British Youth Opera, a member of the Glyndebourne Academy and took part in the RNCM Opera North Chorus mentoring programme.

Enthusiastic about making music available and accessible to all, Morgana is currently a workshop leader Welsh National Opera and conducts a community choir in Eccles. Morgana’s studies are generously supported by Help Musicians UK, the Annie Ridyard Scholarship for Mezzo-Sopranos, the Sir Richard Stapley award and the Clemence Trust.

Iwan Owen

Born in 1995, Iwan Owen hails from Anglesey, North Wales and started learning the piano at the age of 7. He studied with Iwan Llewelyn-Jones from the age of 9 until attending the RNCM in 2013. Iwan Owen graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music in 2019 achieving a Master’s degree with distinction. He studied with Benjamin Frith on a full scholarship as an ABRSM Scholar and won the Piano Recital Prize in 2018, the college’s highest award for piano playing. He was also awarded the Shirely Catarall Award and the Elsie Thurston Accompanist Prize.

Iwan has enjoyed success in national and international competitions; a finalist in the keyboard category at the Royal Over-Seas League Competition in 2016 and, in 2014, he won first prize at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod and the National Eisteddfod of Wales. He was also awarded Gregynog Young Pianist of the Year in 2013.

Iwan has participated in masterclasses given by renowned pianists including Paul Badura-Skoda, Peter Frankl, John Perry, Nelson Goerner, Pascal Rogé, Phillippe Cassard, Vovka Ashkenazy, Kathryn Stott, David Owen Norris and Stefano Fiuzzi. 

Iwan also has much experience as a collaborative pianist. He joined Ensemble Cymru in 2019, an ensemble focused on bringing chamber music to audiences in and around Wales. Iwan was also accepted on to the Live Music Now scheme in 2016.