Davies, Mary

Epithet: writer on cookery

Epithet: singer

Mary Davies, soprano, and one of the Welsh Folk Song Society's most inspirational personalities was born in London in 1855. Her early musical training was supervised by her father, the Merthyr born sculptor and musician Mynorydd, and continued after she won the Welsh choral scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. While there she won the Rosa Gold Medal and the Nilsson prize. Her professional debut was at one of Henry Brinley Richards' concerts in London in the late 1870s and in 1880, she performed the role of Marguerite in Faust at Manchester which was the first performance of Berlioz's opera in English and she quickly became one of the leading singers of her day. She first sang at the National Eisteddfod at Mold in 1873 and throughout her life afterwards was prominent at Eisteddfodau, also acting as adjudicator, particularly of folk song competitions.

In 1890, she retired from the concert stage, two years after her marriage to W. Cadwaladr Davies, first Registrar of the University College of North Wales (now the University of Wales, Bangor). They lived in Bangor for a year or two until her husband's ill health forced his resignation and their move back to London. While at Bangor she became aware of Dr Lloyd Williams and the society of students he had established, known as Y Cantorion or "The Songsters", who searched throughout north Wales for old songs and melodies. This sparked her enthusiasm for folk songs and led to the establishment of the Welsh Folk Song Society at Caernarfon in 1906, with Mary Davies as its president. Other founder members included Lady Herbert Lewis, Miss Morfydd Owen and Mrs Jane Williams. Since 1906 the Welsh Folk Song Society has been active in the preservation and promotion of the rich tradition of folk music in Wales, collecting and publishing a wide range of material. Mary Davies was awarded an honorary doctorate in music at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. She died in 1930.