British conductor James Southall has conducted several leading opera companies and orchestras including Welsh National Opera, English Touring Opera, Sinfonia Cymru, L'orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento, Camerata Nordica and Opéra de Baugé.

 

James is Interim Music Director for the David Seligman Opera School at The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.

He has conducted WNO in productions of Roberto Devereux, La traviata, Don Giovanni, Die Fledermaus, Le Vin herbé, The Barber of Seville, Sweeney Todd, Carmen, Così fan tutte and The Magic Flute.

James has been Assistant Conductor to Lothar Koenigs, Carlo Rizzi, Tomas Hanus and Mark Wigglesworth.

An award-winning pianist, James has performed recitals at Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall and live on BBC Radio 3. He has collaborated with Sir Bryn Terfel CBE, Rebecca Evans, Elizabeth Watts and Ailish Tynan.

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Extended biography

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British conductor James Southall has conducted several leading opera companies and orchestras including Welsh National Opera, English Touring Opera, Sinfonia Cymru, L'orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento, Camerata Nordica and Opéra de Baugé.

 

Conducted repertoire includes Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, Così fan tutte, Carmen, Die Fledermaus, Roberto Devereux, La Traviata, The Barber of Seville, Sweeney Todd Frank Martin’s Le vin herbé and Iain Bell’s A Christmas Carol.

 

In 2014 James conducted a UK tour of The Magic Flute for English Touring Opera.

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James has conducted many symphony and chamber orchestras, including Sinfonia Cymru, Camerata Nordica and the Orchestra of WNO.

 

Since 2016, James has conducted many of the Family and Schools Concerts at WNO, and has devised several programmes with presenter Tom Redmond. 

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James has a long-standing relationship with the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and in 2017 conducted their Symphony Orchestra in concert.

 

In 2018 he was conductor for the Opera Gala at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with the WNO Orchestra. 

 

At WNO James has been Assistant Conductor on several occasions to Lothar Koenigs and Tomáš Hanus (WNO Music Directors).

 

He has also assisted Carlo Rizzi (WNO Conductor Laureate), Mark Wigglesworth and Erik Nielsen. James was also Koenigs’ assistant for Moses und Aron at the Teatro Real, Madrid in 2016.

 

James read music as an Organ Scholar at Queens’ College, Cambridge and received a Masters with Distinction from the Royal College of Music in London.

 

He is an accomplished pianist and has performed recitals at Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall and live on BBC Radio 3. He was a cellist in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and performed with conductors Yan Pascal Tortelier, Jiri Belohlavek, Sir Mark Elder and Sir Roger Norrington.