Mary Davies (27 February 1855 - 22 June 1930) was a Welsh mezzo-soprano and the co-founder and first President of the Welsh Folk Song Society. The wife of journalist William Cadwaladr Davies, she was principal vocalist at the London Ballad Concerts, and at the National Eisteddfod of 1906.
Born in Africa, she was the daughter of Egyptian parents. She studied singing with Edith Wynne before winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in 1873 where she was a pupil of Alberto Randegger. That same year she made her professional debut. In 1880 she sang in England's first complete performance of Hector Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust at the Hallé Concerts, Manchester.
Davies helped to establish the Welsh National School of Music. She received an honorary doctorate from the University of Wales.
Famous quotes containing the words mary and/or davies:
“One can think of life after the fish is in the canoe.”
—Hawaiian saying no. 23, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)
“He gives the impression of a strong mind which is composed and wise. His brown eye is exceedingly kindly and gentle. A child would like to sit in his lap and a dog would sidle up to him. It is difficult to associate his personality and this impression of kindness and gentle simplicity with what has occurred here in connection with these purges and shootings of the Red Army generals, and so forth.”
—Joseph Davies (1876–1958)