John Rees (Q61713)

John Thomas Rees (1857-1949), musician, was born at Llwynbedw, near Cwmgïedd, Breconshire. He had little education, and began work as a pit-boy in the South Wales coalfield at the age of nine. He learnt music whilst working in the mines, and began to give lessons when he was 17, mastering sol-fa under the tuition of D. W. Lewis (1845-1920) between 1876 and 1879. At the age of 21, Rees entered a cantata for an eisteddfod at Treherbert, Glamorgan, and in 1879 his friends raised funds which enabled him to study under Joseph Parry (1841-1903) at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire. Resources soon ran out, but the good offices of David Jenkins (1848-1915) enabled Rees to teach sol-fa at Pen-y-garn, near Aberystwyth, before moving to Emporium, Kansas, USA, in 1882. Although he retained his transatlantic connection long enough to gain a degree in Music at the University of Toronto in 1889, Rees returned to Pen-y-garn in 1883, acting as tutor to an adult music class, conductor of rural choirs, and later as part-time lecturer at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and part-time music teacher at Tregaron County School. His composition for string quartet, Duw sydd noddfa which, like much of his work, was on a religious theme, won the prize in its category at the Aberdare National Eisteddfod in 1895, and Rees subsequently became known throughout Wales as a composer, conductor and eisteddfod adjudicator. He lived at Bow Street, near Aberystwyth, until his death in 1949.