John Rees (musician)

John Thomas Rees (14 November 1857 – 14 October 1949) was a Welsh musician and composer who was notable for winning a prize at the National Eisteddfod in 1895.

The son of Thomas and Hannah (née Morgan) Rees, he began working as a mine pit boy at age nine.

[2] Rees worked in the mines until the age of twenty-one; at that time, he gained some notability as the composer of a cantata he entered into a Treherbert eisteddfod competition.

When these funds ran low, Rees was faced with the possibility of leaving the university until David Jenkins arranged for him to teach Solfa classes in Pen-y-garn.

[2] Rees travelled to Emporia, Kansas in 1882; he then entered the University of Toronto, where he received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1889.