Mathew Ioan Sims joined Green Willow Funerals as a funeral operative March 2009.

His talent for working with and caring for people was soon identified and he was promoted to the position of Funeral Director. He has over the past two years sympathetically and professionally represented the company and many families. Green Willow Funerals is sorry to lose the services of Matthew but we wish him well with his training and trust that it will bring him every success in the future.

Matthew began singing at a young age, singing at local chapels in the Neath valley before, at the age of fourteen, becoming a member of Glynneath Male Choir. He appeared with them in concerts all over Wales, and on their recording There is a Land.

He became a pupil of Welsh soprano Patricia O'Neill in 1998 and in 2000 he joined the Massed choirs of Neath and District as a soloist in a concert to celebrate the new Millennium with co-artiste, internationally famous, Katherine Jenkins. Later that year he joined the Welsh National Youth Opera Company and performed in several of their productions.

In his first year with WNYO he achieved the role of Macheath in the revised version of Benjamin Britten's Beggar's Opera. Following this first success with WNYO, Matthew achieved the following consecutive roles within the company, Pirelli in the Sondheim thriller Sweeny Todd, which was performed at the Welsh National Opera in front of the Board of Directors. Matthew sang the lead role of Nanki-poo in the WNYO production of Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado. He also repeated the role for the National Youth Opera of Northern Ireland at the Belfast Opera House to great acclaim from the press. During his invaluable years with WNYO he had been accepted to The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff. During his studies at the college Matthew became a member of the famous Welsh young Choir Only Men Aloud.

Over the years Matthew has become a well-known artiste, winning at local Welsh Eisteddfod's and appearing in concert with many Choirs both in Wales and England. Matthew has appeared as Tenor Soloist with the following choirs:

Blaenavon Male Choir, Cardiff Philharmonic Choir, Glynneath Male Choir, Onllwyn Male Choir, Swansea Male Choir, Neath Male Choir, Port Talbot Cymric Male Choir, Rhayader Male Choir, Swindon Male Choir, Morriston RFC Male Choir, Skewen Chorale, Porthcawl Choral Society, Morriston Ladies Choir, the famous Morriston Orpheus Choir and others. Matthew has also toured in Ireland, and on two occasions in Italy where on each occasion, he was very well received. Matthew will sing at many engagements this year and he has recently returned from touring Poland in with Morriston Ladies Choir.

After many successful years of study with Patricia O'Neill, Matthew now studies with one of the world's leading operatic tenors Dennis O'Neill with vocal coaching from Michael Pollock.

Matthew is looking forward the year ahead and beginning his studies at the Wales International Academy of Voice.  He will be one of the first 20 students to be tutored by the founder and director, international tenor Dennis O'Neill when his studies commence this September (2011). To fund this course Matt has arranged a number of concerts; he has also been successful and raised money from individual supporters and trusts. Green Willow Funerals, which donates its profits on an annual basis to the Cardiff YMCA, however is also pleased to support Matt during the academic year by covering the cost of his daily travel from his home in Swansea to Cardiff where he is to study.

http://www.matthewioansims.co.uk/index.htm