James Oxley has appeared at all the major concert halls in London, at Symphony Hall Birmingham and Philharmonic Hall Liverpool, and notable UK concert credits include Missa Solemnis with Heinrich Schiff and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Stravinsky Renard with Psappha at the BBC Proms, Haydn Creation and Mozart Great Mass with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Handel Alexander’s Feast with Northern Sinfonia and Nicholas McGegan. His engagements have taken him throughout Europe, especially to France where he has worked with Philippe Herreweghe, Hervé Niquet and Christophe Rousset.
Equally at home on the operatic stage he has sung the roles of Lensky and Belmonte at the Opera de Rennes, Lucano in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at English National Opera, Ferrando Cosi fan tutte and the title role in Candide at the Opera de Rouen, Acis Acis and Galatea at the Reinsberg Festival conducted by Martin Haselböck, and the title role in the high-tenor version of Gluck’s Orphée at Theater Dortmund.
Recent highlights include the title role in Handel’s Jephtha at Teatr Wielki in Poznan, Handel’s Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra in Ireland, De Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht and also the Krakow Philharmonic, Bach Cantatas with the Oxford Bach Soloists, Dyson’s Quo Vadis at the Three Choirs Festival, Bach’s B Minor Mass with The Bach Choir, Trond Kverno’s St Matthew Passion with the Oslo Cathedral Choir, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Bach’s St John Passion with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Norwegian Wind Ensemble and also with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.
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Bach B minor Mass, The Bach Choir
Royal Festival Hall (February 2020)
There are many high points, including … tenor James Oxley’s sweet flute-accompanied “Benedictus”.
Michael Church, Independent
They may have less to do, but James Oxley and Peter Harvey made their parts count: and both impressively so with Orchestra.
Kevin Rogers, Classical Source
Britten Curlew River (Madwoman)
Opéra de Dijon, Grand Théâtre Dijon (April 2016)
In the role of the Madwoman, James Oxley excels. Graced with a clear and flexible upper register, his voice allows him to play fully on the gender ambiguity. The dialogue between the Madwoman and the flute – with whom he is doubled – provides a high level of intensity and emotion. Moreover, James Oxley’s diction is excellent making the text perfectly intelligible.
Jean-Marc Piriou, bachtrack.com
James Oxley’s Madwoman boasts a staggering expressiveness. Stoic during the account of the death of her son and with a look of loss, his interpretation makes him seem less of a mother who is insane, but rather one who is simply desperate and exhausted by a fruitless search for her lost child.
Damien Dutilleul, Olyrix
James Oxley is a splendid tenor. Creating a painful empathy, he portrays his character in troubled form, bald and in a beautiful long dress. The singing is bare, pure, one of rare truth. The voice, clear and as colourful as could be hoped for, is easy in all registers and in all its emission, with the strength and smoothness which is required by the text. Whether it is the expressive chanting or the melisma in the upper register, James Oxley marvels.
Yvan Beuvard, Forum Opera
In the role of the Madwoman, James Oxley – dressed in a blue evening gown – is imposing in his sobriety and concentration. The singing is never plaintive and his appearance never ridiculous. It is a beautiful performance.
Olivier Mabille, Res Musica
The central role of the Madwoman is assigned to James Oxley, an extraordinary tenor with a sonorous voice who really performs the considerable technical challenges of the score. From the recto tono chanting to the contorted singing in the upper register, everything seems easy. He gives an amazing vividness to his character, despite his appearance: bald and wearing a long dress.
Musicologie.org
Bach St Matthew Passion, Three Choirs Festival
Hereford Cathedral (July 2015)
With players of this quality and a stellar cast of soloists it was always going to be a special evening, but few could have been prepared for the dramatic intensity of evangelist James Oxley’s performance. For three hours he lived the role, singing without a copy, freighting each utterance, first with urgency and then resigned solemnity as his narrative slid towards the inevitability of Golgatha.
Stephen Prichard, The Observer
J.S. Bach’s St Matthew Passion, led by a staggeringly fluent Evangelist, James Oxley.
Roderic Dunnett, bachtrack.com
The Evangelist…exquisitely performed by James Oxley.
Spencer Allman, Hereford Times
Bach St Matthew Passion, Royal Northern Sinfonia / Zehetmair
The Sage Gateshead (April 2014)
The two principal actors in the story, the Evangelist and Christ, were brought vividly to life as real people. James Oxley’s clear-voiced Evangelist was never a detached story-teller; this was a fiercely characterful narrator, who made his opinions clear, particularly his disdain for those such as Judas and Pilate who stumble in the face of moral challenges.
Jane Shuttleworth, bachtrack.com
The choir was in characteristic top form and was joined by strong cast of soloists, not least being tenor James Oxley, who as Evangelist drove the narrative forward with an engaging dynamism.
Gavin Engelbrecht, The Northern Echo
Bach Christmas Music, The King’s Consort
Wigmore Hall (December 2013)
James Oxley’s sequence of arias and recitatives in a Kuhnau chorale-setting was delivered with consummate artistry.
Michael Church, The Independent
Wie Schön Leuchtet Der Morgenstern – Kuhnau’s rich setting of Philipp Nicolai’s 1597 Christmas hymn – showcased the group’s attention to textual nuance, most notably in the case of the solo tenor James Oxley.
Hannah Nepil, Financial Times
Handel Solomon (Zadok), Wiener Akademie
Theater an der Wien (March 2013)
In the male roles tenor James Oxley… had a beautiful voice.
Renate Wagner, Der neue Merker
James Oxley had exemplary diction.
Marion Eigl, Kurier
Bach B Minor Mass, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Auckland Town Hall (October 2012)
English tenor James Oxley gave us a clear, strong Benedictus, singing from memory, floating over the lovely sounds of flautist Catherine Bowie and Eliah Sakakushev von Bismarck's cello.
The New Zealand Herald
Best of all the soloists was tenor James Oxley. Despite the punishingly high tessitura, he delivered a Benedictus both attractively plangent and effortlessly accurate. He joined Macliver for a most beautiful rendition of the Domine Deus duet, pure voices blending exquisitely.
bachtrack.com
Evangelist (St John Passion), Northern Sinfonia, The Sage Gateshead
(April 2011)
James Oxley was a delightful Evangelist, engaging the audience with a real sense of story-telling and clearly relishing the ornamental passages of the recitative.
Jane Shuttleworth, Bachtrack
Evangelist (St John Passion), Dunedin Consort, St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh
(April 2011)
...James Oxley [was] an urgent and vocally compelling Evangelist.
Kate Molleson, The Guardian
Bath Philharmonia: An English Christmas
(December 2010)
It was quite beautifully sung by tenor James Oxley, who found all the reflective intensity which gives the piece its emotional
power. This was a memorable musical experience which provided a quite different insight into the Christmas story that was
profoundly moving.
Peter Lloyd Williams, The Bath Chronicle
James Oxley Opera Repertoire
| BERNSTEIN | Candide (title role) |
|---|---|
| BRITTEN | Curlew River (Madwoman) |
| CHARPENTIER | Actéon (title role) |
| DELIBES | Lakme (Gérald) |
| FAURÉ | Pénélope (Antinoüs) |
| GLUCK | Orphée et Euridyce (Orphée) |
| HANDEL | Acis and Galatea (Acis) |
| MAXWELL-DAVIES | The Lighthouse (Sandy) |
| MONTEVERDI | L’incoronazione di Poppea (Lucano) |
| MOZART | Cosi fan tutte (Ferrando) |
| PURCELL | King Arthur |
| RAMEAU | Castor et Pollux (Castor) |
| SCHUMANN | Der Rose Pilgerfahrt |
| STRAUSS | Die Liebe der Danae (Merkur) |
| SYLVIAN | Black Cat |
| TCHAIKOVSKY | Eugene Onegin (Lensky) |
| WAGNER | The Flying Dutchman (Steersman) |
James Oxley Concert Repertoire
| BACH | B minor Mass |
|---|---|
| BEETHOVEN | Missa Solemnis |
| BRITTEN | Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings |
| BRUCKNER | Te Deum |
| ELGAR | The Dream of Gerontius |
| FINZI | Intimations of Immortality |
| HANDEL | Alexander's Feast |
| HAYDN | Creation |
| KVERNO | St Matthew Passion |
| LULLY | Alceste |
| MCDOWALL | Some corner of a foreign field |
| MENDELSSOHN | Lobgesang |
| MOZART | Great Mass |
| PURCELL | Fairy Queen |
| RAMEAU | Les Indes Galantes |
| SCHUMANN | Dichterliebe |
| TAVENER | Requiem |
| VAUGHAN WILLIAMS | On Wenlock Edge |
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