James Southall
Overview
James Southall is a conductor, pianist and coach with WNO. He trained at Queens’ College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music where he studied with Roger Vignoles and John Blakely. He has conducted several leading opera companies and orchestras including English Touring Opera, Sinfonia Cymru, L'orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento, Camerata Nordica and Opéra de Baugé. He has also been Assistant Conductor to Carlo Rizzi, Tomáš Hanus, Lothar Koenigs and Mark Wigglesworth. James won the Accompanist’s Prize at The Kathleen Ferrier Awards and has collaborated with Sir Bryn Terfel, Rebecca Evans, Elizabeth Watts and Ailish Tynan. He has given recitals at the Wigmore Hall and performed live on BBC Radio 3. Recent projects include directing two Menotti operas from the piano with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Musical Director for the Mozart/da Ponte Trilogy workshop at La Monnaie, Brussels and Assistant Conductor for Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron at the Teatro Real, Madrid.
Recent engagements: Conductor Roberto Devereux, La traviata, Don Giovanni, Die Fledermaus, Le Vin herbé (WNO)