James Newby is a former BBC New Generation Artist and Rising Star for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He was nominated by the Barbican Hall for the European Concert Hall Organisation Rising Star scheme and will be presented by them in recitals throughout Europe in the 2022-23 season.
A recipient of the Richard Tauber Prize for best interpretation of a Schubert Lied at the 2015 Wigmore Hall/Kohn International Song Competition, James has since enjoyed a close relationship with the Hall, a recent highlight being a performance of Die schöne Müllerin with Simon Lepper.
Most recently, he has been awarded a prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, in recognition and support of his emerging status as one of the most outstanding young musicians of his generation, and this summer he will take part in their twentieth anniversary celebrations at Wigmore Hall singing Mahler with Mitsuko Uchida.
The release of his debut solo CD I Wonder as I Wander on BIS Records in 2020 with pianist Joseph Middleton was the winner of the Diapason d’Or Découverte and described in Gramophone Magazine as “a performance that sets the tone, announcing Newby as an impressive artist”.
In September 2019 James joined the Ensemble of the Staatsoper Hannover where in 2021 he garnered particular praise for his debut as Eddy in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek. Other important role debuts in Hannover include Guglielmo Così fan tutte and the title role in Eugene Onegin.
In the forthcoming season he will make his French opera debut as Der Junker in Schreker Der Schatzgräber at Opéra National du Rhin; his debut at the Komische Oper Berlin as Guglielmo; will sing Aeneas in Purcell Dido and Aeneas at The Grange Festival and further ahead will make his debuts at Garsington Opera, Theater an der Wien and Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona.
Concert performances this season include Haydn The Creation with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bart Van Reyn and Handel’s Messiah with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen. Past concert appearances include Berlioz with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Mozart with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Handel with the Britten Sinfonia. He has also appeared in other baroque repertoire with conductors David Bates, Jonathan Cohen and John Butt, toured in Europe with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century singing Bach and made his US debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Juanjo Mena.
James studies with Robert Dean.
