Wynford Evans
I first met Wynford back in June of 2000. I was visiting a friend of mine who was studying voice with him. Wynford must have made a huge impression on me because almost a year and a half later, when I was fed up studying with voice coaches who didn’t know how to teach, I remembered Wynford. I began studying with him in January 2002 and was thrilled to finally have found the right teacher. His methods were easy for me to grasp, he reassured me when I was at my most apprehensive state and introduced me to the greatest composer in the world, Edward Elgar. I currently have hundreds of cassette tapes with our lessons recorded on them.
Wynford wasn’t just a voice teacher to me, he was my friend. When I was going through my own illness back in 2003 he always kept in touch and wanted to know about my health. He called me after every single one of my surgeries. I was standing at a precipice of giving up, and he saved me from what would have been a catastrophic mistake.
When I arrived back in England after my many surgeries and grueling hospital stays, I was relieved to see Wynford. I was at my lowest state, but he never gave up on me and never stopped encouraging me to keep on going.
I will never forget how he conducted me through the recording of my first CD, Five Songs in the summer of 2004. I wasn’t well at all physically and anyone could tell. Towards the end of the recording I was about to throw the towel in, but Wynford as his optimistic self told me, “You can do this, just look at me and I will get you through it.” And he did. But unfortunately over the next few years, even though I wanted to have the classical singing career we both worked so hard on me achieving, an endless amount of health problems occurred forcing me to put it aside and “get better”. By late 2007, I had become a recluse, but still Wynford would arrange lessons and suggest musical opportunities, again as his cheerful self. I can’t help but think now how I let him down. I wish I could have pulled myself together and just got on with it, but I never did.
Wynford and I had many great long chats since then, but about 6 months ago I stopped hearing from him. I assumed he went on a prolonged holiday in Spain and was happily playing golf, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. After many attempts at trying to get in touch, I found out that he was suffering from Pancreatic Cancer and had a few surgeries as well. So again, I was reminded how cruel life could be. Knowing what a vicious disease Cancer is, it was the last thing anyone would want a wonderful person such as Wynford to go through. I still haven’t got my head around it, and am devastated he had to spend his last 6 months suffering. Just the other day I wrote him saying, “Just keep listening to great music, that will get you through this.” At times like these that is all anyone can do– comfort yourself with music.
During these past two months the world has mourned the losses of many greats: Eunice Shriver, Ted Kennedy Sr, Patrick Swayze and now Wynford Evans.
