James Gilchrist

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James Gilchrist (* 1966 or 1970 ) is an English classical tenor who previously worked as a doctor.

Career

Music and singing were fundamentally part of James Gilchrist's childhood. So one day he came home at the age of eight and informed his parents that he would from now on sing in the school choir - with a fixed rehearsal on Thursday and a performance every Sunday as part of the church service. After graduating from school, however, he opted for the comparatively solid study of medicine, but continued to sing: Gilchrist was first a chorister at New College in Oxford and later at King's College (Cambridge) .

He completed his medical studies as well as the postgraduate medical diploma "Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom" (MRCP), which qualifies for membership in a medical association such as the Royal College of Physicians . He also worked as a doctor for some time. Nevertheless, this activity did not fill him, so he took a break, originally planned for only one month, to devote himself to music. This break lasted a year due to incoming orders, and when he returned to his profession as a doctor, he realized that he would not be happy there in the long run and that he could not seriously pursue both careers at the same time. So in 1996 he decided to pursue a professional career as a singer and took singing lessons from Janice Chapman and Noelle Barker .

Gilchrist became internationally known in 2000 as a participant in the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage of the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner . He has appeared as a concert, opera and oratorio singer, for example in Mozart's Requiem with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra , in Berlioz ' L'enfance du Christ at the Proms with the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestra, in Handel's Judas Maccabaeus with the Danish Radio Orchestra and in Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under Ton Koopman .

His operatic appearances include Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw at the New Chamber Opera , Handel's Acis and Galatea at the Berlin State Opera , and Gluck's Alceste at La Monnaie in Brussels. On the 60th anniversary of the end of the war, he sang in 2005 in the performance of Britten's War Requiem under Thomas Neuhoff in Bonn 's Beethoven Hall . Gilchrist works regularly with the Bach Association Cologne under Thomas Neuhoff.

Gilchrist recorded works by Johan Sebastian Bach ( St. Matthew Passion with the Gabrieli Consort under Paul McCreesh as well as numerous cantatas), Johann Kuhnau , Sergei Rachmaninow and Benjamin Britten on CD .

reception

As part of a review of a Bach recording, the New York Times stated in 2000: "James Gilchrist and Peter Harvey , tenor and bass, were lively voices with excellent diction" ( English: " James Gilchrist and Peter Harvey, tenor and bass, were vivid voices with excellent diction. " ).

Nine years later the New York Times followed up with another review and confirmed or reinforced its earlier verdict: James Gilchrist, as Archangel Uriel, had confirmed himself that he was currently one of the best tenors of early music (“ James Gilchrist (the archangel Uriel), who proved himself again, [...], one of the finest early-music tenors working today. ").

Publications (selection)

  • 1999: Vespers (Sergei Rachmaninov) - EMI-Electrola
  • 2000: Musica sacra (Giacomo Puccini) - BMG Ariola
  • 2002: Gloria RV 589 (Antonio Vivaldi) - EMI-Electrola
  • 2002: Israel in Egypt (Georg Friedrich Handel) - North German Broadcasting
  • 2003: St. Matthew Passion (Johann Sebastian Bach) - Universal Music
  • 2008: Johannes Passion (Johann Sebastian Bach) - Dornier publishing group
  • 2011: Hugo Wolf: The Complete Songs, Vol. 2 (Hugo Wolf) - Stone Records
  • 2012: My Beloved Is Mine (Benjamin Britten) - Linn Records
  • 2013: Les Illuminations opus 18 (Benjamin Britten), with Amsterdam Sinfonietta - Channel Classics
  • 2015: St Matthew Passion (Johann Sebastian), with the Academy Of Ancient Music - AAM Records

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e James Gilchrist (tenor) - Short Biography. In: bach-cantatas.com. Retrieved November 16, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Notice de personne: Gilchrist, James (1970 -....). In: BnF Ctalogue général. Retrieved November 16, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Philip Campbell: Messiah returns - Venerable masterpiece revisited ( Memento of February 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: ebar.com . January 12, 2005 (English).
  4. ^ A b Judy Murphy: Medicine's loss is singing's gain as James comes West ( Memento from January 11, 2018 in the Internet Archive ). In: connachttribune.ie . January 11, 2018 (English).
  5. ^ Bernard Holland: MUSIC REVIEW; Straight From the Joyous Heart and Soul, in a Setting the Composer Would Relish. In: nytimes.com/. December 29, 2000, accessed November 16, 2018 .
  6. ↑ James R. Oetsreich: An Early-Music Master Follows Haydn Way Back to the Beginning. In: nytimes.com. October 18, 2009, accessed November 15, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Gilchrist, James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English classical singer
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century