Rhian Samuel (born Aberdare, Wales, 1944) is a Welsh composer who resided in the USA for many years.
She has composed over 140 published works, including orchestral, chamber, vocal, and choral music.
A BIS CD containing her BBC-commissioned work for soprano and orchestra, Clytemnestra, was short listed for a Gramophone Award in 2020.
[4][5][6][7] As well as orchestral song-cycles (Clytemnestra and The White Amaryllis), she has written a large number of voice-and-piano cycles for major festivals including the Oxford Lieder Festival (Wildflower Songbook, to poems by Anne Stevenson), the Three Choirs Festival (A Swift Radiant Morning, to poems by WWI poet, Charles Sorley, the Fishguard Festival, UK (Cerddi Hynafol/Ancient Songs, to anonymous early Welsh texts), and the Ludlow English Song Weekend (The Moon and I, to poems by Anne Stevenson and Tabitha Hayward) and has written music for choirs including New College Choir (Oxford), the BBC Singers, and a number of American college choirs as well as her own choirs at Reading University and City University, London.
Her Path Through the Woods for recorder and strings was premiered at Temple of Peace, Cardiff, in April 2011 by Pamela Thorby and the Welsh Sinfonia, conducted by Mark Eager.