Born in Cardiff in 1991 Tomos Xerri first attended Ysgol Pencae, Llandaff, a Welsh medium primary school, where he studied harp and piano lessons from 5 years old. He attended the Junior course of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and was awarded a choral and music scholarship to Llandaff Cathedral School, and these two musical institutions gave him the necessary tools to win many regional and national youth competitions. In 2005 Tomos gained a major music scholarship to Eton College on harp and piano, where he was an integral part of the music department and explored composing, arranging and music management as well as performing. He was then awarded a scholarship to Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance to study harp with Gabriella Dall'Olio and Frances Kelly, and won the audition to spend the 3rd year of his undergraduate degree on the Erasmus programme at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón in Zaragoza with Gloria Martinez. Last year he graduated with First Class Honours from Trinity Laban, and is currently studying a Master of Music course at Trinity Laban as a Trinity College London Scholar, and has participated in masterclasses with many eminent harpists such as Fabrice Pierre, Marie-Pierre Langlamet, Anna Loro, Helga Storck, Sioned Williams, Catrin Finch, David Watkins, Sylvain Blassel and Elizabeth Fontan Binoche.
Tomos has performed many times on national British, Welsh and Spanish television, most recently appearing on BBC primetime news with his chamber group performing Ravel’s Introduction & Allegro at the opening concert of the Cutty Sark in Greenwich. He has also performed for many members of the Royal Family including Her Majesty the Queen, and performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician in venues across London and also across the UK, from Cornwall to North Wales, and his musical exploits have led him to perform in concert halls in Japan, Italy and the Czech Republic.
Tomos currently enjoys a busy freelance career and in the past year has been called in to play with over ten amateur and semi-professional orchestras in London and the surrounding areas such as the Young Musician's Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Orchestral Society. He was recently awarded a much-coveted reserve place in the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, and is principal harp of the Siegfried Camerata. He is also a harp teacher with a number of private pupils, all of whom have received distinctions in their ABRSM exams, and has taught and ran workshops in numerous primary schools in South East London.
Tomos is a lover of contemporary music and has performed many British, European and world premieres, and has performed many new student compositions as part of the Contemporary Music Group. His most recent project was the Lichtbogen project which involved composers experimenting with live electronics and writing pieces inspired by Saariaho’s work Lichtbogen, culminating in a live showcase concert and studio recordings.