James Atkinson

British baritone James Atkinson is a graduate of the Royal College of Music Opera Studio, where he studied with Alison Wells. He is the winner of the Royal Over-Seas League Singers Prize 2022, first prize at the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards 2018, and first prize and the Audience Prize at the Somerset Song Prize 2019.

In Spring 2022 James made his debut with Welsh National Opera as Masetto in Don Giovanni, and with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra singing Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast. With the RCM Opera Studio, he sang the roles of Buonafede Il mondo della luna, Ramiro L’heure espagnole, Sam Trouble in Tahiti, Le Gendarme Les mamelles de Tirésias and Blazes The Lighthouse. Other roles include Lysander The Enchanted Island (British Youth Opera), Boots Der Rosenkavalier (Garsington Opera), Papageno Die Zauberflöte and Aeneas Dido and Aeneas (Hurn Court Opera).

As a recitalist, James has performed at Oxford Lieder, Wigmore Hall, the Gower Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, the London Song Festival, the Lewes Festival of Song, the Aldeburgh Festival, the North Norfolk Music Festival and the Ludlow English Song Weekend. His September 2021 recital with Sholto Kynoch at the Lammermuir Festival was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 as a Lunchtime Live Concert.

Upcoming performances include and a programme of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor songs with Elizabeth Llewellyn and Simon Lepper at Wigmore Hall, St John Passion with the Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican, a semi-staged Orest Elektra (Tokyo Symphony Orchestra) and a return to the Ludlow English Song Weekend.

Updated: 23/05/2023