Artists

British baritone James Newby is the winner of the 2016 Kathleen Ferrier Award, and is a BBC New Generation Artist from 2018-2020.

That same year he was the recipient of the Wigmore Hall/Independent Opera Voice Fellowship, and in 2015 was awarded the Richard Tauber Prize (for best interpretation of a Schubert Lied) and overall Third Prize at the Wigmore Hall/Kohn International Song Competition. In 2017 he was awarded the Trinity Gold Medal by the board of Trinity Laban Conservatoire.

In the 2016/17 season James sang the role of Mercurio in La Calisto with La Nuova Musica and David Bates, and made his BBC Proms debut in 2016 singing in Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music conducted by Sakari Oramo. James was a 2017 Jerwood Young Artist at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and appeared in La Traviata, Hamlet, La Clemenza di Tito and the role of the notary in Don Pasquale during the 2017 Festival, for which he won the prestigious John Christie Award.

James was awarded the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s Rising Stars prize for 2017-2019.  Recent engagements with the orchestra include ‘Christus’ in the world premiere of Sally Beamish’s The Judas Passion; and various Bach Cantatas as part of the OAE’s ‘Bach, the Universe and Everything’ series at Kings Place, London. In 18/19 he sings the role of Apollo in Handel’s Apollo e Dafne under Jonathan Cohen, and St Matthew Passion under John Butt.

His operatic roles include the title roles in Eugene Onegin (Brent Opera) and Don Giovanni (Moon Little Opera), Aeneas Dido and Aeneas (Trinity Laban Chamber Choir), Gobrias Belshazzar and Apollo Orpheus in the Underworld (Trinity Laban Opera), Papageno Die Zauberflöte (Suffolk Opera) and Guglielmo Così Fan Tutte (Everybody’s Theatre Company) and Howard Moody’s PUSH (Glyndebourne Opera). Most recently he sang the role of Count Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro for Nevill Holt Opera and a staged Bach St John Passion with the Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, directed by Calixto Bieito. From 19/20 James joins the ensemble of the Staatsoper Hannover where roles will include Papageno/Die Zauberflöte, Fiorello/Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Schaunard/La Bohème and Dr. Falke/Die Fledermaus.

James enjoys a busy schedule as a recitalist; recent and future highlights include appearances at Leeds Lieder Festival and Newbury Spring Festival with Joseph Middleton, Oxford Lieder Festival with Eugene Asti and his debut solo recital at Wigmore Hall. He also sang in the Perth International Arts Festival, Australia, including a performance of Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, and performed Schumann’s Dichterliebe in the Trinity Laban Schumann and Poulenc Project led by Eugene Asti. 

Other recent/future highlights include debut performances with the Gabrieli Consort, RTE National Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and a Messiah tour with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century.  He will also make his operatic debut at Châtelet Théâtre Musical de Paris in a revival of Bieito’s St John Passion and at La Monnaie Brussels for Howard Moody’s PUSH.  James will also perform at the Ryedale, Chiltern Arts and Three Choirs Festivals and return to the Wigmore Hall in recital.

James is a recipient of the Musicians’ Company Saloman Seelig Award, and is generously supported by the Drake Calleja Trust.