Mark Andrew James is a conductor of classical music.
James was born in Limassol, Cyprus. He studied conducting and the oboe at Trinity College, London, where he was awarded many prizes enabling him to study further with Franco Ferrara in Siena. Whilst at college, Mark conducted performances of The Marriage of Figaro and Albert Herring at the Collegiate Theatre, London in association with the London Opera Centre.
James also participated in numerous master classes with conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Sir Georg Solti and Sir Charles Mackerras, where he was given the opportunity of conducting the New York Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic and the Juilliard orchestras.
James has conducted extensively in Russia, where he conducted the Yaroslavl Governor's Symphony Orchestra, the Krasnoyarsk Symphony, Voronez Symphony and the Samara Symphony at concerts in St. Petersburg and Moscow, performing programmes of Russian and English music, including Sergei Rachmaninoff's No. 2 and No. 3 and Gustav Holst's The Planets .
Mark James has worked with many orchestras and choirs all over Britain, including Brighton Festival Chorus, Huddersfield Choral Society, Hertfordshire Chorus, the Worthing Philharmonic Choir and the Sussex Chorus in programmes that have included The Dream of Gerontius , Verdi's Requiem, Beethoven's Choral Symphony , Carl Orff's Carmina Burana , Mozart's Requiem and Johann Sebastian Bach's B minor Mass and St Matthew Passion .
In 1993 Mark James founded the Sussex Symphony Orchestra, which is based in Brighton and performs all over the South of England. The orchestra, having both amateur and professional musicians, performs a wide and diverse range of repertoire which has included such works as Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring , Maurice Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé , Dmitri Shostakovich's 5th Symphony, Gustav Mahler's symphonies Nos. 2 & 5, Reinhold Glière's Harp Concerto and James MacMillan's percussion concerto, Veni, Veni Emmanuel.
As well as the standard concerto repertoire, most recently including Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with Philip Fowke and the Dvořák Cello Concerto with Guy Johnston, the orchestra also regularly includes premiere performances of commissioned works by both established and emerging composers, including David Fanshawe, Paul Lewis, Peter Copley and Paul Carr, whose music he has recorded with the orchestra on the ‘Claudio Records’ label.
Amongst the orchestra's most popular concerts under Mark James's direction are the annual Opera Gala, given as part of the Brighton Festival, which showcases many young and rising opera stars of today and a series of summer park prom concerts given throughout the South, to audiences of over 11,000.
As part of his work with the orchestra, Mark James has masterminded the creation of a series of workshops and sessions catering for children of all ages and abilities, through to adult further education by taking sections from the orchestra into schools and colleges, holding seminars and sessions culminating in public concerts.
In recognition of his work with this orchestra, he was nominated for a Creative Briton Award, where individuals are nationally recognised for their contributions to their art. A review in The Times described the orchestra as ‘one of the best of its type in the country’
In addition to his concert activities, James has conducted studio sessions for both film and television at ‘Hear no Evil’ and Angel Recording Studios in London. Films include Being Considered for Spice Factory, Jack Brown and the Curse of the Crown for Little Wing Films and Lady Audely's Secret, a Victorian melodrama for Carlton Television.
Apart from his return visits to Russia, future engagements include a visit to the new Hall for Cornwall in Truro with the Sussex Symphony Orchestra, a performance of Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs with Dame Felicity Lott, concerts of French and English music in France and engagements in Estonia, Moldova and Rio de Janeiro.
The War Requiem, Op. 66, is a large-scale setting of the Requiem composed by Benjamin Britten mostly in 1961 and completed in January 1962. The War Requiem was performed for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, which was built after the original fourteenth-century structure was destroyed in a World War II bombing raid. The traditional Latin texts are interspersed, in telling juxtaposition, with extra-liturgical poems by Wilfred Owen, written during World War I.
The Gramophone Classical Music Awards, launched in 1977, are one of the most significant honours bestowed on recordings in the classical record industry. They are often viewed as equivalent to or surpassing the American Grammy award, and referred to as the Oscars for classical music. They are widely regarded as the most influential and prestigious classical music awards in the world. According to Matthew Owen, national sales manager for Harmonia Mundi USA, "ultimately it is the classical award, especially worldwide."
The BBC Symphony Chorus is a British amateur chorus based in London. It is the dedicated chorus for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, though it performs with other national and international orchestras.
Sir Charles Barnard Groves CBE was an English conductor. He was known for the breadth of his repertoire and for encouraging contemporary composers and young conductors.
Margaret Eleanor Hillis was an American conductor. She was the founder and first director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus.
Sir Gilbert Levine, GCSG is an American conductor. He is considered an "outstanding personality in the world of international music television." He has led the PBS concert debuts of the Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the PBS premieres of works including the Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Bach Magnificat in D, Haydn Creation, and Bruckner Symphony 9.
Melinda O'Neal is a conductor of choral and choral-orchestral music, professor emerita of music, and author.
Simon Halsey, CBE is an English choral conductor. He is the chorus director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, a position he has held since 1983, and has been chorus director of the London Symphony Chorus since 2012. He is also artistic director of the Berlin Philharmonic Youth Choral Programme and the director of the BBC Proms Youth Choir, and conductor laureate of the Berlin Radio Choir. He is professor and director of choral activities at the University of Birmingham.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, CC is a Canadian (Québécois) conductor and pianist. He is currently music director of the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montréal), the Metropolitan Opera, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was also principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2018.
The Vienna Singverein is the concert choir of the Vienna Musikverein with around 230 members. It is regularly requested by top orchestras and conductors for large and varied projects.
The Philharmonia Chorus is an independent self-governing symphony chorus based in London, UK. Since its foundation in 1957 the Chorus has given over 900 concerts and made over 100 recordings. The Chorus Master is Gavin Carr.
Masterworks Chorale is a choral ensemble based in San Mateo, California.
The London Philharmonic Choir (LPC) is one of the leading independent British choirs in the United Kingdom based in London. The patron is Princess Alexandra, The Hon Lady Ogilvy and Sir Mark Elder is president. The choir, comprising more than 200 members, holds charitable status and is governed by a committee of 6 elected directors. As a charity, its aims are to promote, improve, develop and maintain education in the appreciation of the art and science of music by the presentation of public concerts.
Gavin Carr is a British conductor and baritone working with major choruses in the UK and appearing in opera and concert in the UK and around the globe.
The International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) are music awards first awarded 6 April 2011. ICMA replace the Cannes Classical Awards formerly awarded at MIDEM. The jury consists of music critics of magazines Andante, Crescendo, Fono Forum, Gramofon, Kultura, Musica, Musik & Theater, Opera, Pizzicato, Rondo Classic, Scherzo, with radio stations MDR Kultur (Germany), Orpheus Radio 99.2FM (Russia), Radio 100,7 (Luxembourg), the International Music and Media Centre (IMZ) (Austria), website Resmusica.com (France) and radio Classic (Finland).
James Burton is a British conductor and composer. He is currently the Boston Symphony Orchestra Choral Director and Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. He also holds the position of Director of Orchestral Activities and Master Lecturer in Music at Boston University.
Brighton Festival Chorus is a large choir of over 150 amateur singers based in Brighton, UK. One of the country's leading symphony choruses.., and considered "one of the jewels in the city's musical crown", BFC performs in major concert halls throughout Britain and Europe, particularly in Brighton and London.
Harold Rosenbaum is an American conductor and musician. He is the artistic director and conductor of the New York Virtuoso Singers and the Canticum Novum Singers. The New York Virtuoso Singers appear on 48 albums on labels including Naxos Records and Sony Classical. He has collaborated extensively with many ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, Juilliard Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Bang on a Can, Mark Morris Dance Group, Orchestra of Saint Luke's, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Riverside Symphony, and Brooklyn Philharmonic.
László Istvan Heltay was a Hungarian-born British conductor and choral director. Heltay is best known for contributing to the establishment of the Brighton Festival Chorus, the Chorus of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the Schola Cantorum of Oxford. He was described as: