About Darcy
Darcy Cole is an ambitious and explorative composer, lyricist and singer. She graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in July 2025. Her most recent and notable endeavour was composing a sixteen-part narrative choral piece Gwenhidw, weaving a narrative around the Welsh legend of the mermaid queen. This was premiered in May 2025 at the Richard Burton Theatre at RWCMD conducted by the incredible Beth Fitzpatrick. Darcy continues her exploration of the boundless possibilities of vocal composition in this ambitious fusion of opera, choral and musical theatre.
In 2024, Darcy collaborated with RepCo and Bethan M. Evans (Soprano), reimagining Evans' late grandfather's beautifully haunting poetry in three-part song cycle, Late Lamps - J. C. Evans (premiered June 2024 in Dora Stoutzker Concert Hall at RWCMD). After the success of this project, she was again selected for RepCo 2025, organising, composing for and conducting a concert for eight-part higher-voice choir, Vena Vocals. Their debut performance occurred in May 2024 in the Dora Stoutzker Hall with original composition Through Dreams. With a rooted focus on performing original compositions and arrangements (including Cloudbusting by Kate Bush), the group bend and blur the vocal sound worlds of Musical Theatre, Classical, Folk and Jazz taking a fresh stance on choral music for upper voices.
During her time at RWCMD, Darcy arranged and composed original music for various in-house theatre productions such as Sweet Science of Bruising by Joy Wilkinson, Playhouse Creatures by April de Angelis and The Welkin by Lucy Kirkwood, collaborating with students and staff across the college to perform live and record her compositions. Most recently, she composed for and musically directed new play Children of the West by Dipo Barruwa-Etti, directed by Zoë Templeman-Young.
In December 2022, Darcy was selected by award-winning light trail Christmas at Bute Park, From the Fields project to compose original music for light installation, Liquid Sky. The piece itself is a vocal collage of layered motifs, encapsulating a lonely winter's night, hearing a haunting melody through the icy winds. Darcy continues to pursue her interest in vocal and choral music, and hopes to continue her original work within the theatre world.
Alongside composing for plays, Darcy has a vested interest in musical theatre after being involved in amateur productions throughout her childhood and teen years. She has composed a series of songs for an original musical theatre concept album, Liminal Space, based around four characters situated in a different liminal space, physically and mentally, and their journey to finding one another. She has collaborated several times with the musical theatre department at RWCMD to perform songs from the album, and continues her collaboration with musical theatre graduates.
Darcy Cole is an ambitious and explorative composer, lyricist and singer. She graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in July 2025. Her most recent and notable endeavour was composing a sixteen-part narrative choral piece Gwenhidw, weaving a narrative around the Welsh legend of the mermaid queen. This was premiered in May 2025 at the Richard Burton Theatre at RWCMD conducted by the incredible Beth Fitzpatrick. Darcy continues her exploration of the boundless possibilities of vocal composition in this ambitious fusion of opera, choral and musical theatre.
In 2024, Darcy collaborated with RepCo and Bethan M. Evans (Soprano), reimagining Evans' late grandfather's beautifully haunting poetry in three-part song cycle, Late Lamps - J. C. Evans (premiered June 2024 in Dora Stoutzker Concert Hall at RWCMD). After the success of this project, she was again selected for RepCo 2025, organising, composing for and conducting a concert for eight-part higher-voice choir, Vena Vocals. Their debut performance occurred in May 2024 in the Dora Stoutzker Hall with original composition Through Dreams. With a rooted focus on performing original compositions and arrangements (including Cloudbusting by Kate Bush), the group bend and blur the vocal sound worlds of Musical Theatre, Classical, Folk and Jazz taking a fresh stance on choral music for upper voices.
During her time at RWCMD, Darcy arranged and composed original music for various in-house theatre productions such as Sweet Science of Bruising by Joy Wilkinson, Playhouse Creatures by April de Angelis and The Welkin by Lucy Kirkwood, collaborating with students and staff across the college to perform live and record her compositions. Most recently, she composed for and musically directed new play Children of the West by Dipo Barruwa-Etti, directed by Zoë Templeman-Young.
In December 2022, Darcy was selected by award-winning light trail Christmas at Bute Park, From the Fields project to compose original music for light installation, Liquid Sky. The piece itself is a vocal collage of layered motifs, encapsulating a lonely winter's night, hearing a haunting melody through the icy winds. Darcy continues to pursue her interest in vocal and choral music, and hopes to continue her original work within the theatre world.
Alongside composing for plays, Darcy has a vested interest in musical theatre after being involved in amateur productions throughout her childhood and teen years. She has composed a series of songs for an original musical theatre concept album, Liminal Space, based around four characters situated in a different liminal space, physically and mentally, and their journey to finding one another. She has collaborated several times with the musical theatre department at RWCMD to perform songs from the album, and continues her collaboration with musical theatre graduates.
Photo taken after the premiere of Gwenhidw May 2025.
Photo taken for the Christmas at Bute Park press release December 2022.
