James Gilchrist, Philharmonia Chamber Players, The Rupa Ensemble
Biography James Gilchrist, Philharmonia Chamber Players, The Rupa Ensemble
James Gilchrist
began his working life as a doctor, turning to a full-time career in music in 1996. His musical interest was fired at a young age, singing first as a chorister in the choir of New College, Oxford, and later as a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge.
James’ extensive concert repertoire has seen him perform in major concert halls throughout the world with conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Roger Norrington, Bernard Labadie, Harry Christophers, Harry Bicket and the late Richard Hickox. Recent highlights have included Britten’s Church Parables with performances in St Petersburg, London and at the Aldeburgh Festival, Handel’s L’Allegro il Penseroso ed il Moderato with the Mark Morris Dance Group at the Teatro Real, Madrid, Solomon with Les Violons du Roy, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri and Die Schöpfung at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Britten’s Nocturne with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and War Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. In J.S. Bach’s great Passions of St John and St Matthew, James works consistently at the highest level and is recognised as the finest Evangelist of his generation; as one recent BBC Proms reviewer noted, ‘he hasn’t become a one-man Evangelist industry by chance’.
A prolific and versatile recitalist, James enjoys imaginative and varied programming in collaborations with pianists Anna Tilbrook and Julius Drake, and harpist Alison Nicholls. Recent appearances include a Schubertiade weekend at St John Smith Square and Schwanengesang coupled with Beethoven An die Ferne Geliebte at the Wigmore Hall. James recently returned to the Wigmore Hall to begin his project with Anna Tilbrook, Schumann and the English Romantics, pairing Schumann song cycles with new commissions from leading composers, Sally Beamish, Julian Philips and Jonathan Dove, setting English poetry of the Romantic period.
James’ impressive discography includes the title role in Albert Herring and Vaughan Williams’ A Poisoned Kiss for Chandos, St John Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music, the Finzi song cycle Oh Fair To See, Elizabethan Lute Songs When Laura Smiles with Matthew Wadsworth, Leighton Earth Sweet Earth, Vaughan Williams On Wenlock Edge, Finzi songs and Britten’s Winter Words for Linn Records and the critically-acclaimed recordings of Schubert’s song cycles for Orchid Classics. James and Anna Tilbrook have recently released a new disc of Schumann song cycles for Linn Records.
Recent engagements include performances with The King’s Consort at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest; concert performances of Semele with Concerto Köln, and Hercules with the English Concert; Handel’s Messiah with Boston Handel and Haydn Society; Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in Toronto, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and with the Academy of Ancient Music; a recital with Julius Drake at the Concertgebouw and Haydn’s Creation with Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia and in a new staged production for Garsington Opera and Ballet Rambert, as well as appearing as the Evangelist in St Matthew Passion across Europe with the Monteverdi Choir.
This season, highlights include Handel L’Allegro with Stuttgart Bachakademie; Haydn Creation at Sadler’s Wells (Garsington Opera / Ballet Rambert) and in Denmark (Aarhus Symphony Orchestra); Christmas Oratorio across Europe with Windsbacher Knabenchor; and appearances at the Lammermuir, Roman River, Hatfield House and Oxford Lieder festivals. James will also curate a concert series of Bach and Purcell for the Academy of Ancient Music, and appears in the role of Reverend Horace Adams in Britten’s Peter Grimes for Bergen National Opera and the Edinburgh International Festival.
Julian Marshall
(ARCM, FHEA) has a wealth of experience as a songwriter, composer, teacher, lecturer, mentor/coach and musician. Following education at Dartington Hall School and the Royal College of Music, he became internationally known as the co-creator (with Kit Hain) of the late 1970s group Marshall Hain, whose single Dancing in the City went platinum in 1978. He was also a member of the band The Flying Lizards, scoring a top- five UK hit with the single Money in 1979. In the 1980s he formed the group Eye to Eye with American songwriter and performer Deborah Berg. The group recorded two classic albums for Warner Brothers produced by Steely Dan producer Gary Katz and a latter-day third album produced by Roxy Music producer Rhett Davies.
During the 1980s and 90s, as well as writing and recording his own music, he produced records, played as a session musician on both sides of the Atlantic and worked in A&R for Boulevard Records in Los Angeles and Polydor Records in London.
Since the early 1990s, he has run his own highly successful teaching, mentoring and coaching practice. Past students include Rosie Lowe, Cosmo Jarvis, Gabriel Stebbing. He has taught and lectured at Dartington College of Arts, Plymouth University, Middlesex University and Dartington International Summer School. From 2010 to 2015 he co-launched and was creative director of London Song Company, an organization for songwriters offering a range of training and opportunities across a wide stylistic brief.
Currently, in addition to running his continuing thriving creative coaching practice, he is a Teaching Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP) in London.
