Iwan Teifion Davies is the Director of Music and conductor of the Philomusica of Aberystwyth. He trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio in London, where he participated in a variety of performances in collaboration with Opera North, Scottish Opera and Welsh National Opera. He was a staff conductor at the Salzburger Landestheater, where he conducted the Mozarteum Orchester in performances of La Gazzetta (Rossini), The Trial (Glass), Wiener Blut (Strauss), and My Fair Lady. He is Head of Music at the Buxton International Festival, where he has conducted productions of Cendrillon (Viardot), Viva la Diva (Donizetti) and the world premiere of a new operetta using the music of Ivor Novello, The Land of Might-Have-Been. For OPRA Cymru, he conducted the world premiere of Gareth Glyn's Welsh-language opera, Wythnos yng Nghymru Fydd, Fidelio, Così fan tutte and Glyn’s second opera, Un Nos Ola Leuad, with the orchestra of Welsh National Opera. For English Touring Opera, he conducted La bohème and The Golden Cockerel (Rimsky-Korsakov). A champion of Welsh music, he has commissioned and performed new works from Claire Victoria Roberts, Pwyll ap Siôn, Gareth Olubunmi Hughes, Hana Lili, Jefferson Lobo, David Roche, Sarah-Lianne Lewis and Mared Emlyn.

Please get in touch with Iwan at iwd7@aber.ac.uk

James joined the University in May 2023 working part time for Music@Aber as University Music Administrator.

He provides support to Iwan, students and the team.

Please get in touch with James at jac142@aber.ac.uk

Dr David Russell Hulme was University Director of Music from 1992 until 2020. He established the Music Centre in the wake of the Music Department closure, bringing together university and community in an outstandingly successful programme. A former Aber music student, he studied with legendary conductor Sir Adrian Boult and has pursued a parallel conducting career, touring Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada, notably as a principal conductor with Carl Rosa Opera. A champion of British music, his Naxos recording of Edward German’s ‘Tom Jones’ reached No 3 in the classical charts amid warm critical acclaim. He is currently guest conductor of the Zaporozhye Symphony Orchestra in Ukraine.

Described in ‘Opera’ as ‘our leading authority on Sullivan’s manuscripts,’ Dr Hulme has published extensively, including critical editions for Oxford University Press ranging from Sullivan to Haydn’s ‘Paukenmesse’ and Walton’s second symphony. As an arranger he has collaborated with film composer Neil Brand and with John Wilson. Recent work has been performed by the BBC Symphony and Concert orchestras and premiered at the Royal Albert Hall and Barbican.

In 2012 Dr Hulme received the Glyndwr Medal for his ‘outstanding contribution to the arts in Wales.’ He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a vice-president of the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society and Emeritus Conductor of Aberystwyth Philomusica.

Current list of publications: Research Portal

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