Siân James (born 24 December 1961) is a Welsh traditional folk singer and harpist who has recorded for Sain and BBC Records as well as her own label, Bos. A native of the

Mid Wales Mid Wales ( or simply ''Y Canolbarth'', meaning "the midlands"), or Central Wales, is a region of Wales, encompassing its midlands, in-between North Wales and South Wales. The Mid Wales Regional Committee of the Senedd covered the unitary autho ...

village of

Llanerfyl Llanerfyl is a village and community (Wales), community in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales. Located near the River Banwy, the community includes the village of Llanerfyl, several farms and wide tracts of marchland. The southern part of the communit ...

Powys Powys ( , ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It borders Gwynedd, Denbighshire, and Wrexham County Borough, Wrexham to the north; the English Ceremonial counties of England, ceremo ...

, Siân James participated, from an early age, in local

eisteddfodau In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, a ...

, playing the

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, the

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

and later the

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

. While still a student at

Llanfair Caereinion Llanfair Caereinion () is a market town and community in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales upon the River Banwy (also known as the River Einion), around 8 miles west of Welshpool. In 2011 the ward had a population of 1,810; the town itself had a p ...

High School, she began composing her own songs and arranging traditional Welsh music. She went on to read music at the

University of Wales, Bangor Bangor University () is a public research university in Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales. It was established by Royal Charter in 1885 as the University College of North Wales (UCNW; ), and in 1893 became one of the founding institutions of the federal ...

. She is also well known for her acting work on Welsh language television. Having been a recording artist for Sain and BBC Records, James has, in the 2000s, recorded her work for Bos at her home studio in Llanerfyl. James conducts and accompanies a Welsh men's choir called Parti Cut Lloi. In 2009, she performed several times with the choir at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Albums

* ''Cysgodion Karma'' 'Karma Shadows''(1990) * ''Distaw'' 'Silent''(1993) * ''Gweini Tymor'' 'Serving a Term''(1996) * ''Di-Gwsg'' 'Sleepless''(1997) * ''Birdman'' (1999) * ''Pur'' 'Pure''(2001) * ''Y Ferch o Bedlam'' 'The Girl from Bedlam''(2005) * ''Cymun'' 'Communion''(2012) * ''Gosteg'' 'Silence''(2018)

Film

*''

Tylluan Wen ''Tylluan Wen'' is a Welsh language film / television drama produced in Wales in 1997 by Ffilmiau'r Nant and directed by Angharad Jones. It is set in Llan Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, as an adaptation of Angharad Jones' novel ''Y Dylluan Wen'' (''The ...

'' (1997)

References

External links

Siân James official website
* * Siân James and Parti Cut Llo
on YouTube
1961 births Living people Welsh folk harpists People from Montgomeryshire Alumni of Bangor University Welsh-speaking musicians Welsh-language singers {{Wales-bio-stub