15 Facts About Osian Ellis

Osian Gwynn Ellis was a Welsh harpist, composer and teacher.

Osian Ellis was principal harpist of the London Symphony Orchestra, a founding member of the Melos Ensemble, and a harp teacher at the Royal Academy of Music.

From 1959 onwards, Ellis had a close professional partnership with Benjamin Britten that lasted to the latter's death.

Osian Gwynn Ellis was born in Ffynnongroew, Flintshire, in 1928, the son of the Rev Tomos Ellis, a Welsh Methodist minister, and his wife Jenny, a harpist, and spent the first four years of his life at Llys Myfr on Llinegr Hill.

Osian Ellis studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Gwendolen Mason, whom he later succeeded as Professor of Harp from 1959 to 1989.

Osian Ellis joined the London Symphony Orchestra in 1961 and became principal harpist.

Osian Ellis's 1959 recording of Handel's harp concertos won the Grand Prix du Disque.

In 1962, the Melos Ensemble with Osian Ellis released what is considered by musicologist Paul Loeber the finest rendition ever of Ravel's Introduction and Allegro, playing with flautist Richard Adeney, clarinettist Gervase de Peyer, violinists Emanuel Hurwitz and Ivor McMahon, violist Cecil Aronowitz and cellist Terence Weil.

Osian Ellis took part in the ensemble's recording of Peter Maxwell Davies's cantata Leopardi Fragments.

Osian Ellis was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1971.

Osian Ellis was the Honorary President of the Wales International Harp Festival and in 2018 was honoured at the festival, in Caernarfon, when a new work was premiered to celebrate his 90th birthday.

Osian Ellis is particularly known for his musical association with Benjamin Britten, with whom he collaborated extensively.

Osian Ellis appeared in many first recordings of Britten's pieces, often with Britten himself conducting.

When Britten had to withdraw, due to heart surgery, from accompanying his partner, the tenor Peter Pears, on the piano, Osian Ellis came to accompany Pears, and Britten wrote new pieces for them, including Canticle V: The Death of St Narcissus and A Birthday Hansel.

Osian Ellis's writings include The Story of the Harp in Wales.