Aled Davies
Classical tenor soloist and sheep farmer
Aled Wyn Davies was born on 3 August 1974 and grew up in Llanbrynmair, in Powys, Mid Wales, where his family farmed sheep in the Cambrian Mountains, an occupation he still combines with his singing career today. His family's connection to the land runs deep: his grandparents' farm was flooded in 1964 to create the Clywedog Reservoir, forcing the family to relocate to another farm nearby, previously run by the family of the harpist Elinor Bennett.
Davies began as a folk singer, winning the Open Folk Song competition at the Aberystwyth Folk Festival in 1997 and the Traditional Folk-song competition at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod in 1999, before broadening into classical solo singing. He went on to win the Tenor Solo over 25 competition at the National Eisteddfod of Wales three years running, in 2004, 2005 and 2006, culminating in the David Ellis Memorial Prize, the Blue Riband awarded to the festival's best classical soloist, at Swansea in 2006.
Since 2014, Davies has performed as one of the Three Welsh Tenors, alongside Rhys Meirion and Aled Hall, taking Welsh song to audiences as far afield as Patagonia, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In February 2015 he shared the stage with Bryn Terfel for a celebratory concert in Machynlleth, and he has released two solo albums on the Welsh label Sain, alongside a Welsh-language autobiography, O'r Gwlân i'r Gân ("From Wool to Song"), published in 2020.