Today, the National Eisteddfod announced that Susan Dennis-Gabriel from Vienna in Austria is this year’s Wales and the World President
Originally from the village of Cwm-bach near Aberdare, Susan was one of the earliest pupils at Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Aberdâr, and her passion for our language has continued even though she moved from Wales to live and work years ago.
After graduating in English at Cardiff University, she taught for a while, before going to study music at the Royal College of Music in London. She moved to Vienna, after winning a scholarship to the University of Vienna, with the intention of becoming a professional opera singer.
She sang with Welsh National Opera, Covent Garden and Kent Opera for a time before returning to Vienna to work, marry and raise a family. She was married to the Professor of Music at the University of Vienna, the late Professor Wolfgang Gabriel, and is the mother of Angharad, who is a professional singer.
She worked as a professional soloist in Austria for years, performing at the famous Musikverein in Vienna, and in other cities across Europe, before working as a voice tutor for students at the start of their career. She also worked as a guest voice tutor in Finland, Spain and Japan.
She has kept in touch with family and friends in Wales over the years, especially with her nephew and his family in Aberdare, and her friend, the singer Eirian James, in Cardigan. She is also a familiar name to many who follow the press and media here in Wales, most recently discussing her memories of the Aberdare National Eisteddfod in 1956.
She will be honoured in a ceremony at the beginning of the Eisteddfod’s Cymanfa Ganu, held in the Pafiliwn on Sunday evening, 4 August.