The Karl Daymond Bursary
After the death in 2017 of our founder Karl Daymond, all four of Karl’s Singing Clubs, Usk, Chepstow Castle, Forest of Dean and Duke’s Yard, decided to jointly collect money for an on-going bursary fund to help young musicians starting out on their careers. In addition to the bursary fund, money raised at concerts and events over the following years has been divided between iNeed (a local refugee organisation that Karl had supported), Chepstow Mencap, St David’s Hospice, and the Usk Mayor’s Charities.
Karl had initiated the bursary project himself, and the first recipient, in 2012, was one of Karl’s students, local boy Michael Lowe. Michael is now successfully carving out a career for himself as a professional singer.
The Bursary Fund today
To help us find a suitable recipient for the bursary we approached The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. In 2023 they found us not one but two amazingly talented young singers, Tomos Owen Jones and Maisie O’Shea.
Tomos is a tenor, composer and conductor from Llangattock in the Brecon Beacons. He has just finished a Masters Degree in composition and vocal studies at RWCMD, and will be continuing his studies there in September 2024 as part of the David Seligman Opera School.
Singing as a baritone until the Summer of 2022, Tomos discovered opera with the WNO Young Company, singing Gwydion the Magician in Stephen McNeff’s 2117/Hedd Wyn. Tomos has since performed with the company as Count Heinrich (Judith Weir’s The Black Spider), and Semyon Semyonovitch (Cherry Town, Moscow). Operatic roles at RWCMD include L’Aumonier (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Angel (Der Schauspieldirektor), cover Eisenstein/Falke (Die Fledermaus) and Antonio (Le Nozze di Figaro).Passionate about new music, Tomos has created roles including Y (Julia Plaut’s The Y Knot) at RWCMD, and Baritone (Richard Barnard’s Nonsensus) with Opera Sonic at the Tête-à-Tête Opera Festival London. In concert, Tomos has been a soloist in works including Vaughan-Williams’ Five Mystical Songs, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle and Handel’s Messiah.
Tomos’ compositions have been performed by ensembles including Cardiff Polyphonic Choir and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and he won the WNO-RWCMD Composition Competition in 2021. As Musical Director of May Street opera, Tomos recently conducted Hansel and Gretel, and has just premiered his first chamber opera “The Egg” at Atmospheres Festival 2023 in Cardiff.
Maisie is a soprano from the Brecon Beacons. Having recently gained a First Class BMus with Honours from RWCMD, generously supported by the Olwyn Phillips Memorial Scholarship, she is beginning her MMus with support from the Karl Daymond Bursary.
Maisie’s operatic roles include Mrs Ham Noye’s Fludde, Solange Not in Front of the Waiter, Josephine HMS Pinafore, Little Cupid Venus and Adonis, Mother (cover) Hansel and Gretel, and Chorus in The Choice of Hercules / Dialogues of the Carmelites, and Maisie recently created the role of God in Tomos Owen Jones’ The Egg.
Maisie’s passion for showcasing early, contemporary and lesser-known works can be seen in her recital and concert work, with recent performances including Bach’s B Minor Mass, Handel’s Messiah and Vivaldi’s Gloria, alongside regular performances in concerts of baroque and renaissance repertoire. Maisie has been able to share works from many forgotten female composers, including performing the soprano solo in BBC NOW’s recording of Johanna Müller Herman’s Im Garten des Serails and representing RWCMD in a collaboration with SWAP’ra where she performed and recorded Two Night Songs by Elaine Hugh Jones.
As a scholar with the BBC National Chorus of Wales, Maisie has performed as a soloist on Mealor’s album Wonders of the Celtic Deep, in the semi chorus of Williams’ A Sea Symphony at the BBC Proms, in a trio of Three Nymphs in Purcell’s King Arthur with Christian Curnyn, and has given a solo recital of newly published works by Holst in Gloucester Cathedral.
Maisie is co-founder of vocal ensemble Solstice, with recent engagements for the group including performing Brahms’ Neue Liebeslieder at The Sixteen’s Sounds Sublime Festival.
Singing Club continues to raise money for the bursary fund through the Chepstow Coffee Concerts, which are held monthly in St Mary’s Priory, Chepstow. (Look out for local publicity). A share of the collection taken at these concerts goes to the Friends of St Mary’s Priory, and a share goes to the bursary fund.
Also please keep a look out for Singing Club’s own fundraising Bursary Concerts. These will be mentioned on our upcoming events page.