Once a drummer in a heavy metal band, James Atherton began his professional singing career as a lay clerk, continuing in this for over 20 years as a member of several choirs, including Winchester Cathedral and St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, where he sang on many grand occasions, including the wedding of HRH Prince Charles to Camilla Parker-Bowles.
As a soloist James has sung with many of the country’s finest orchestras, including the Philharmonia, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Swan, the English Symphony Orchestra and the Academy of Ancient Music, and with small groups such as Fretwork and His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts. An haute-contre or high tenor, he has also sung with most of the major early music consorts in this country.
He has appeared on television and radio extensively in the UK, Germany, France and the USA, and made more than 20 CD recordings.
Recent and future concerts include Bach’s Passions, Christmas Oratorio, Mass in B Minor and Magnificat, Handel’s Messiah, Vespers by Rachmaninov and Monteverdi, Britten’s Saint Nicholas and Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, and Stravinsky’s Mass. He has been invited to sing Cantata BWV 82, Ich Habe Genug, in Wellington Cathedral in New Zealand.
For over 25 years James has been running and training various musical ensembles, from small consorts to large choral societies. He has also led master classes and workshops and also several educational programmes in schools and colleges on singing and conducting. Alongside his own practical music making James is the head voicer at Nicholson’s, the pipe organ builders in Malvern. A major overseas task has been to oversee the tonal completion of the new organ in Auckland Cathedral, the largest organ to have been built in the British Isles for over 70 years.
