About

There’s a beguiling smile in his voice

The stage

James hails from Southwell, Nottinghamshire, and is an Artist Masters graduate from Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 2025, he has appeared as ‘Don Ramiro’ in La Cenerentola with Hurn Court Opera, ‘Manuel’ in a revival of Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s Dream Lovers with Stanley Arts, Cantata Dramatica for Mander’s The Dowager’s Oyster as ‘Christopher’, ‘Ernesto’ in Don Pasquale with Surrey Opera, and – on the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth — he was ‘Edward Ferrars’ in a new production of Sense and Sensibility by Neil Hampton and Jeffrey Haddow. This year with Merry Opera, he will be performing ‘Ferrando’ in Così fan tutte for the first time.

2022-24 roles included ‘Enrico’ Donizetti Maria de Rudenz, ‘Fintan O’Riordan’ The Ballybruff Trilogy, ‘The Duke’ Lambert The Duchess of Padua, ‘Nemorino’ Donizetti L’elisir d’amore, three productions as ‘Prince Ramiro’ Rossini La Cenerentola, ‘Schoolmaster’ Janáček The Cunning Little Vixen, ‘Rodolfo’ Puccini La bohème, ‘Lensky’ Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin, ‘Aeneas’ Purcell Dido & Aeneas.

James regularly performs as an oratorio soloist and as an Evangelist; this year he will evangelise the St John Passion with the Temple Music Foundation and Sloane Square Choral Society. Recent oratorio performances including Bruckner Te Deum at York Minster, the UK premiere of Lidarti Ester, Bach St John Passion and B Minor Mass, Puccini Messa di Gloria, Britten St Nicolas, Mendelssohn Elijah and Haydn Creation.

If you would like to use the biography/CV/headshot for publicity purposes, please contact James for the most up-to-date version.