Described by The Daily Telegraph as ‘in a class of his own’, James Baillieu has been the prize-winner of the Wigmore Hall Song Competition, Das Lied International Song Competition, Kathleen Ferrier and Richard Tauber Competitions
He was selected for representation by Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) in 2010 and in 2012 received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and a Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust Award.
James has given solo and chamber recitals throughout Europe and further afield. He collaborates with a wide range of singers and instrumentalists from Lawrence Power, Jack Liebeck, Adam Walker, the Elias and Heath Quartets to Sir Thomas Allen, Kiri te Kanawa, Annette Dasch, Pumeza Matshikiza, Allan Clayton, Eri Nakamura, Catherine Wyn Rogers, Jacques Imbrailo, Sarah-Jane Brandon, Ben Johnson, Kathryn Rudge, Ian Bostridge, John Mark Ainsley, Ailish Tynan and Mark Padmore. Festivals and venues have included Wigmore Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus, Musikverein, Bridgewater Hall, National Concert Hall Dublin, Festpillene i Bergen, Spitalfields, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Bath, City of London, Aix-en-Provence, St Magnus, Derry and Norfolk & Norwich Festivals. As a soloist he has appeared in the Nottingham and Leeds International Series as well as at the Royal Festival Hall with the English Chamber Orchestra.
An experienced coach, James has worked regularly at the George Solti Accademia di Bel Canto in Italy (with Mirella Freni and Leo Nucci), was a repertory professor for the Encuentro de musica y Academia de Santander in Spain, has worked with Gerhard Schulz at the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove and continues to coach for the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He is an alumnus of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, a scholar for the Samling Foundation, participated in the European Liedforum in Berlin and in 2013 worked with Thomas Quastoff at the Verbier Festival Academy.
In 2014/15, James curates a series of concerts in Perth including the Dvorak and Brahms Piano Quintets with the Heath Quartet as well as a series at the Brighton Festival. He has a solo recital in Edinburgh, recitals at the Barber Institute Birmingham, the Oxford Lieder Festival’s Schubert Project, Kettle’s Yard Cambridge, the Auditorium du Louvre, Paris, a recital tour of Spain and at the Verbier Festival with Mark Padmore. In the 2015/16 season James has his own 11-concert series at Wigmore Hall “Introducing James Baillieu” with Adam Walker, Jonathan McGovern, Ailish Tynan, Robert Murray, Henk Neven, Iestyn Davies, Allan Clayton and Mark Padmore amongst others.
Born in South Africa, James studied at the University of Cape Town and the Royal Academy of Music in London with Michael Dussek, Malcolm Martineau and Kathryn Stott. In 2007 he graduated with a Dip.RAM and received the Christian Carpenter Award in recognition of his outstanding achievements. He was appointed a Hodgson Junior Fellow in 2007, a Professor of Piano Accompaniment in 2011, and awarded Associateship of the Academy in 2012.