{{short description|American singer and author (born 1922)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2021}} {{Infobox writer | name = Phyllis Kinney | image = Phyllis_a_Mered_yn_eu_cartref_yng_Nghwmystwyth_Gorffennaf_2012.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Kinney (right) with Meredydd Evans, 2012 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1922|7|4|df=y}} | birth_place = Pontiac, Michigan, U.S. | education = | alma_mater = Juilliard School | occupation = Singer, musicologist | notable_works = ''Canu'r Cymry''<br />''Welsh Traditional Music'' | spouse = {{marriage|Meredydd Evans|1948|2015|reason=died}} | children = 1 }}
'''Phyllis Kinney''' (born 4 July 1922) is an American-born Welsh singer, collector and historian who is a leading authority on Welsh folk music. She studied at the Juilliard School and was a soprano with the Carl Rosa Opera Company during the 1940s. After meeting her husband Meredydd Evans, Kinney immersed herself in the culture of Wales. Through her writing, research and performances, Kinney helped to preserve and promote traditional music of Wales. The archives of Kinney and Evans are now part of the Welsh Music Archive at the National Library of Wales.
==Career== Kinney was born in Pontiac, Michigan on 4 July 1922, Independence Day.<ref name="kinney">{{cite web |title=Phyllis Kinney. The musician from Michigan |url=https://blog.library.wales/phyllis-kinney-the-musician-from-michigan/ |website=Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru |access-date=21 August 2022}}</ref> After completing her education at Pontiac High School, Kinney enrolled at Michigan State College, East Lansing.<ref name="kinney"/> There, she was tutored in music by Gomer Llewelyn Jones, a Welshman who had moved to America in 1934.<ref name="lansing">{{cite journal |title=Historical club hears Welsh song portrayal |journal=Lansing State Journal |date=5 December 1942 |page=6 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/206617427/?terms=%22phyllis%20kinney%22&match=1 |access-date=22 February 2023}}</ref><ref name="legacy">{{cite web |last1=Tems |first1=Mick |title=Merêd: Let's celebrate the legacy that he left |url=http://folk.wales/magazine/?p=443 |website=FolkWales |access-date=21 August 2022}}</ref> Jones sparked in interest in Welsh music in Kinney, who later said she had "hardly heard of Wales" before meeting him.<ref name="legacy"/><ref name="menai">{{cite journal |last1=Richards |first1=Robert |title=From Michigan to make a home by Menai |journal=Liverpool Daily Post |date=2 June 1964 |page=5 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/908330316/?terms=%22meredydd%20evans%22&match=1 |access-date=22 February 2023}}</ref> By 1942, Kinney was giving public performances of Welsh songs, assisted by Jones at the piano.<ref name="lansing"/> Jones considered her soprano renditions to bring "a vivid understanding of the character of the Welsh people" to audiences in Michigan.<ref name="lansing"/><ref name="lecturetopic">{{cite journal |title=South America lecture topic |journal=Lansing State Journal |date=20 March 1941 |volume=20 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/204124706/?terms=%22phyllis%20kinney%22&match=1 |access-date=22 February 2023}}</ref> Kinney graduated in 1943 and secured a fellowship at the Juilliard School, New York City.<ref name="kinney"/>
In 1947, Kinney became lead solo with the Carl Rosa Opera Company. With the company, she toured the UK in March of that year. During a stop in Bangor, Wales, Kinney met Meredydd Evans, a Welsh folk musician who was a member of the popular close harmony group Triawd y Coleg.<ref name="kinney"/> Kinney learnt to speak, read and write Welsh, and introduced Evans to folk music from around the world.<ref name="legacy"/><ref name="menai"/> The couple married on 10 April 1948 and had a daughter, Eluned, in 1949.<ref name="arwel">{{cite web |last1=Jones |first1=R. Arwel |title=EVANS, MEREDYDD ('MERÊD') (1919 - 2015), campaigner, musician, philosopher and television producer |url=https://biography.wales/article/s12-EVAN-MER-1919#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=13&manifest=https%3A%2F%2Fdamsssl.llgc.org.uk%2Fiiif%2F2.0%2F1491650%2Fmanifest.json&xywh=-264%2C1096%2C2462%2C2124 |website=Y Bywgraffiadur Cymreig |access-date=25 August 2022}}</ref>
Like Evans, Kinney began to work for the BBC, often performing duets with her husband.<ref name="kinney"/> Kinney sang in "impeccable Welsh, which had a delightful American burr occasionally", according to the ''Western Mail''.<ref name="farewell">{{cite journal |last1=Tiwniwr |first1=Y |title=Nostalgic farewell to a leading voice |journal=Western Mail |date=30 June 1952 |page=4 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/814992969/?terms=Triawd%20y%20Coleg&match=1 |access-date=4 November 2022}}</ref> In June 1952, the family moved to America, where Evans enrolled at Princeton University.<ref name="farewell"/><ref name="PAW">{{cite web |last1=Hale |first1=Constance |title=Lives: Meredydd Evans *55 |url=https://paw.princeton.edu/article/lives-meredydd-evans-55 |website=Princeton Alumni Weekly |access-date=24 August 2022}}</ref> In 1960, the family moved back to Wales, where they settled. With Evans, Kinney edited collections of Welsh songs described as "definitive reference-works for this genre of national song."<ref>Sain (Recordiau) Cyf. (Caernarfon, Wales)</ref> In 1962, Kinney providing operatic vocal accompaniment on Evans' album ''A Concert of Welsh Songs'', with backing by the Russian harpist Maria Korchinska and several musicians and singers conducted and arranged by Robert Docker.<ref name="cashbox">{{cite journal |title=England |journal=Cash Box |date=3 March 1962 |page=40 |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/60s/1962/CB-1962-03-03.pdf |access-date=26 August 2022}}</ref> Kinney later described the album, Evans' first to use instrumental backing, as "tradition dressed up to suit the audience".<ref name="tems">{{cite journal |last1=Tems |first1=Mick |title=Merêd |journal=Taplas |date=2004 |url=https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=156610 |access-date=26 August 2022}}</ref>
In the 1980s, Kinney and Evans settled in Cwmystwyth, where they contributed to the community and taught Welsh to a host of their non-Welsh-speaking neighbours; according to biographer R. Arwel Jones, the couple's home became "a magnet for people of all ages, from all over Wales and the world who would flock there to enjoy their company and to benefit from the couple's intellectual generosity".<ref name="arwel"/> Their home's proximity to the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth allowed the couple to devote their retirement to studying the history of folk songs and tunes, and their research appeared regularly in Canu Gwerin, the journal of the Welsh Folk Song Society.<ref name="arwel"/> Kinney was awarded an honorary M Mus degree by the University of Wales in 1991 and became honorary fellow of Bangor University alongside her husband in 1997.<ref name="kinney"/> In April 2007, the University of Wales published a ''Festschrift'' volume for Evans and Kinney, "a fully bilingual collection of critical essays on various aspects of Welsh song and traditional music by Wales’ leading experts and musicologists" to celebrate their contribution "not only to Welsh traditional music but to the very culture and language of Wales."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bangor.ac.uk/news/full.php?Id=204 |title=Bearers of Song |publisher=Bangor University |accessdate=2008-07-17}}</ref><ref>Wyn Thomas in a promotional notice for Harper, Sally & Wyn Thomas. ''Bearers of Song: Essays in Honour of Phyllis Kinney and Meredydd Evans'' (Bangor: University of Wales, 2007)</ref> {{quote box|width=30%|quote=Being Welsh is like belonging to an exclusive club without membership. I can appreciate why Welshmen want to preserve their language. It's a beautiful, imaginative language.|source=– Phyllis Kinney, 1964<ref name="menai"/>}} In 2011, University of Wales Press published Kinney's final book to date, ''Welsh Traditional Music'', an extensive history and analysis of the instrumental and vocal traditions of Wales.<ref name="traditionalmusic">{{cite book |last1=Kinney |first1=Phyllis |title=Welsh Traditional Music |date=2011 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=9781783168583 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0OWYDwAAQBAJ |access-date=25 September 2022}}</ref><ref name="treformowen">{{cite book |last1=M. Owen |first1=Trefor |title=The Customs and Traditions of Wales |date=2016 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=9781783168279 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_ckmDAAAQBAJ |access-date=25 September 2022}}</ref>
Meredydd Evans died aged 95 in 2015; he and Kinney had arranged to donate their archives to the National Library of Wales, where they are now part of the Welsh Music Archive.<ref name="tributes">{{cite journal |last1=Crump |first1=Eryl |title=Tributes paid to Gwynedd raised broadcaster Dr Meredydd Evans |journal=Daily Post |date=21 February 2015 |url=https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/tributes-paid-gwynedd-raised-broadcaster-8692099 |access-date=21 August 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-31567287|title=Tributes paid to ex-BBC Wales man|date=21 February 2015|website=Bbc.com|accessdate=2020-07-05}}</ref><ref name="kinney100">{{cite web |title=Phyllis Kinney: 100 |url=https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/online/llyfrgell-genedlaethol-cymru-the-national-library-of-wales/phyllis-kinney-100/e-omqrxq |website=Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales |access-date=25 September 2022}}</ref> In 2019, Kinney and Evans were awarded the Welsh Music Prize Inspiration Award.<ref name="prs">{{cite web |last1=Bemrose |first1=Bekki |title=Welsh Music Prize 2019 winner announced |url=https://www.prsformusic.com/m-magazine/news/welsh-music-prize-2019-winner-announced/ |website=PRS for Music |access-date=26 August 2022}}</ref>
Kinney turned 100 on 4 July 2022. On that date, the National Library hosted ''Phyllis Kinney: 100'', an event featuring her daughter Eluned and harpist Elinor Bennett, to celebrate the centenary.<ref name="kinney100"/>
==Publications== * ''Canu'r Cymry'' Welsh Folk-Song Society * ''Canu'r Cymry II'' Welsh Folk-Song Society * ''Caneuon Chwarae 1'' Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin, 1973 * ''Caneuon Chwarae II'' Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin, 1974 * ''Welsh Traditional Music'' Welsh Traditional Music, 2011
==References== {{reflist|group=nb}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kinney, Phyllis}} Category:1922 births Category:Living people Category:Welsh-language singers Category:Welsh-speaking academics Category:Welsh folk-song collectors Category:People from Pontiac, Michigan Category:Juilliard School alumni Category:American women centenarians Category:Singers from Michigan