After Dinner Speakers: Bryn Terfel, Joaquin Cortes, Simon Mayo

Bryn Terfel Jones is one of the most recognisable opera stars and has gained worldwide success with his famous bass-baritone voice. Born the second son of Hefin and Nesta Jones, Bryn was raised at Fferm Nant Cyll Ucha, Pant Glas, Garndolbenmaen. He showed a talent for singing from when he was four years old, and began lessons with family friend, Selyf Jones. He had won countless local, Urdd and National Eisteddfod titles by the time he left school and enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music, London, in 1984. There he first worked with his current voice coach, Rudolf Piernay, and won the Guildhall gold medal and the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship. Critics have noted that the combination of a great voice, immaculate diction, commanding stage presence and flair for acting has made Bryn one of the greatest opera singers around today. He has appeared at all the major opera houses of the world, singing music by composers as diverse as Mozart, and Wagner, Puccini and Stravinsky, Verdi and Britten. Bryn made his operatic debut for the Welsh National Opera as Guglielmo in Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte in 1990 before taking on one of his most famous roles, Figaro, in his American debut with the Santa Fe Opera. The biggest breakthrough of his career came in 1992, when he sang the part of Jochanaan in Salome at the Salzburg Festival, Austria. Since winning Cardiff Singer of the World's Lieder Prize in 1989, Bryn has recorded many albums of songs by Schubert, Schumman and Vaughan Williams. He has also released two CDs of songs from the shows, including work by Rodgers and Hammerstein and Lerner and Loewe. Bryn has not forgotten his Welsh roots. He lives with his wife, Leslie, and their three sons at Bont Newydd, and has founded his own music event, the three-day Faenol Festival. Over the past three years, stars of opera, pop and the West End have braved the temperamental Gwynedd weather to entertain the crowds. He is also a great supporter of securing a home for the Welsh National Opera, and is already booked to perform The Flying Dutchman at the opening of the Millennium Centre, Cardiff, in 2004.