Iestyn (pronounced “Yes-tyn”) Morris is a 37-year-old singer, musician and actor – a gifted “all-rounder,” if you will – who wound up his tenure at the famed Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2006.
Earlier this year, the rising star – the son of actors, whose grandfather was Welsh – took on the role of the eponymous hero in a critically acclaimed adaption of Peter Pan at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, performing with the Welsh National Opera.
“We went to Cardiff and then on to Birmingham and then on to Covent Garden,” recalls Morris, who also holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bristol, graduating in 2001, “where we had two sell-out shows in July. It was a lovely experience.”
“I arrived at opera through acting,” continues the versatile entertainer, revealing what it is he loves about the medium in which he currently finds himself. “My parents were both actors and they met through working in theatre, so I grew up with an appreciation of naturalistic acting, of storytelling…
“For me, it’s a very natural thing to move into opera with that background. I approached it with a little bit of apprehension because at that young age I preferred straight stage acting to opera.
“Then I realised through doing it that there are certain ways you can explore a character, certain ways you can tell a story, and I really found that opera was one of the more complete ways of exercising every part of your brain. As an actor I really enjoy sharing that.”
We moved on to the subject of the artist’s new EP, a six-track collection commemorating the works of a number of England’s best known – and also lesser known – creative minds.
“Well it’s taken quite a few years now, but normally as a countertenor when you’re asked to do a recital you think, ‘Great, I’m gonna bring out all my Schubert, all my wonderful Lieder‘ and they go, ‘No no no, we want some Purcell, we want some Dowland,'” explains Morris, also a huge admirer of Russian classical music.
“There is still this mentality, particularly in the UK, that you are slightly pigeon-holed even now into certain time periods. There is an assumption that you can’t sing, for example, 19th century repertoire, even though all these songs were written in every key for everyone to sing.”
Preparation for the EP, a joint effort with renowned piano accompanist Nigel Foster, began in 2011 and the pieces therein span a four-century gap between English Jacobean poets and some of the finest composers from the last century who share their nationality.
It includes the three “Songs for Ariel” by Sir Michael Tippett, Roger Quilter‘s “By a Fountainside” and “To Lucasta on Going to the Wars” by Hubert Parry. “To Althea from Prison,” a poem by Richard Lovelace set to music – again by Quilter – rounds off the proceedings.
“I approached the songs through the music,” says Iestyn, a previous winner of the Patricia Routledge National English Song Competition, going into more detail regarding his new release, “but then found that these composers were really quite specific with their text choices. So many of them were going for Jacobean texts, Jacobean poets and I was curious as to why that group of poets was introduced.
“It was interesting that late 19th century, early 20th century composers in England knew so much. There seems to be this marriage of minds almost, albeit separated by about 300 years, and I thought this was an excellent opportunity to challenge people’s ideas of what countertenors can do, by giving them works of music that they don’t necessarily know but in a style they know.
“We take some brilliant, unsung heroes of the English song repertoire, people like Parry, who was very famous for his choral writing – he wrote the anthem ‘I Was Glad‘ for Will and Kate’s wedding – but what we don’t know is that he was also a great songwriter. I felt a responsibility to introduce a new audience to these songs.”
And the intention is to carry on doing that on an upcoming LP? “Exactly. The album will probably be an extension of the EP. I’m trying to stick to the English Song, trying to go down that route, looking at songs that require a theatrical characterisation.”
Iestyn Morris’ self-titled EP will be out on November 27.
A full-length album should be available in the first half of next year.
For more information on Mr. Morris, visit his official website.
