Alan Rees (composer)

Rees was born in Morriston, near Swansea, to Hilda and John Rees.[1] He attended both an Anglican church with his mother, and a Welsh baptist church with his father.[1] He attended Dynefor Grammar School, and later studied music and education at University College Cardiff.[1]

Rees began a musical career as organist and director of the choir at Cardiff Metropolitan Cathedral, where he worked from 1963 until 1968.[1] He then began a novitiate at Belmont Abbey, became a monk four years later, and was ordained two years later.[1] He directed the music there, and taught at the school.[1] He became abbot of the abbey in 1986, a position he held until he resigned in 1993 due to the pressures of the role and his mental health.[1][2] He was the ninth person to hold the position.[3]

Rees died suddenly after a fall in 2005.[1] The coroner recorded a death of suicide, as he likely jumped from a landing.[4] Rees had suffered from depression for much of his life, and attempted suicide the year before.[4]

• English Mass[5]
• Congress Mass, for the National Pastoral Congress in Liverpool, 1980
• Cardiff Mass, for Pope John Paul II's visit to Britain, 1982[1]
• "A Winter Rose", carol