Tenor James Gilchrist began his working life as a doctor, turning to a full-time music ca- reer in 1996. His extensive concert repertoire has seen him perform in major concert halls throughout the world with renowned conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Roger Norrington, Bernard Labadie, Harry Christophers, Harry Bicket, Masaaki Suzuki and Richard Hickox. A master of English music, he has performed Britten’s Church Parables in St Petersburg, in London and at the Aldeburgh Festival, Nocturne with the NHK Symphony in Tokyo and War Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony and the National Youth Orchestra of Germany. Highlights have included singing the role of Rev. Adams in Britten’s Peter Grimes with Bergen Philharmonic and Edward Gardner with performances at the Edinburgh International Festival, Royal Festival Hall, Grieghallen and Den Norske Opera, as well as Haydn’s Creation for a staged production with Garsington Opera and Ballet Rambert, Elijah with Goteborgs Symfoniker and Masaaki Suzuki, and a return to King’s College, Cambridge to perform St Matthew Passion as part of Stephen Cleobury’s final Easter week as Director of Music. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and the St John and St Matthew Passion feature prominently in his schedule, and he is celebrated as perhaps the finest Evangelist of his generation; as one review noted, “he hasn’t become a one-man Evangelist industry by chance”. James’ impressive discography includes recordings of Albert Herring (title role), Vaughan Wil- liams’ Songs of Travel, and solo disc Solitude with pianist and long-time collaborator Anna Til- brook, including a new work by Jonathan Dove, all for Chandos Records, St John Passion with the AAM, the Finzi song cycle Oh Fair To See, Elizabethan Lute Songs, Leighton Earth Sweet Earth, Vaughan Williams On Wenlock Edge, and Britten’s Winter Words for Linn Records, and the critically-acclaimed recordings of Schubert’s song cycles for Orchid Classics.
