Paul Carey Jones

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

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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, and his set of songs Four Poems of Gerald Manley Hopkins in 2008 - see below), Jonathan Dove (his opera for television, Man on the Moon, in 2006), Keith Burstein (playing the role of Mohammed in the opera Manifest Destiny at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, David Power (his set Forever and Other Songs) and Emily Hall (four settings of words by Toby Litt at the 2010 Grimsby St Hugh's Festival).

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 Andy Warhol in the Italian premiere of Michael Daugherty's Jackie O at the Teatro Rossini in Lugo and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. He has also covered the roles of Richard Nixon in John Adams' Nixon in China and Jaufre Rudel in Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de Loin 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 collaborate; their debut album of classical songs, titled Enaid - Songs of the Soul, was released in November 2007 by Sain.

In November 2008 they premiered a set of songs, Four Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, written specifically for them by the composer Richard Elfyn Jones, in a recital at Cardiff University.

Recordings

As well as Enaid - Songs of the Soul for Sain, Jones also sings the roles of Squire Allworthy and Dobbin on Naxos' recording of Edward German's Tom Jones, released in August 2009.

On DVD, Jones appears as Andy Warhol on Dynamic's 2009 recording of Michael Daugherty's Jackie O, and in various roles on the BBC's 2005 film of Rachel Portman's The Little Prince.

References