Lyric coloratura soprano Ana James was born in Dunedin, New Zealand. A recent graduate of the Benjamin Britten International Opera School, Royal College of Music London, she studies with Lillian Watson. A winner of several scholarships and competitions, she is the inaugural recipient of the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation Scholarship. Ana is also a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, New York, where she studied with Marlena Kleinmann Malas. Student roles included Governess/The Turn of the Screw directed by John Copley, Queen of the Night/Die Zauberflöte for both British Youth Opera and BBIOS, Miss Wordsworth/Albert Herring (cover) directed by Sir Thomas Allen for BBIOS, Lucia/The Rape of Lucretia, Mistress Ford/Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Baroness/Der Wildschütz, and Despina/Cosí Fan Tutte, and Silberklang/DerSchauspieldirektor. Scenes performed include Philine/Mignon, Violetta/La Traviata, Aspasia/Mitridate and Sophie/Der Rosenkavalier. Ana James has participated in master classes with artists such as John Copley, Phillip Langridge, Sherrill Milnes, Antony Rolfe Johnson, Sarah Walker, Warren Jones, Martin Katz, Regine Crespin, George Shirley and Martina Arroyo. Ana James’s concert repertoire includes: Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate, C Minor Mass, Requiem, Mahler’s 4th Symphony, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Fauré’s Requiem, Bach’s St Matthew Passion, St John Passion. She has performed in concert throughout New Zealand and in such venues as the Royal Festival, Queen Elizabeth, and Barbican Halls in London, Usher Hall Edinburgh, and she has given a recital at the Musashino Civic Cultural Hall, Tokyo. A member of the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera Covent Garden from September 2005 to July 2007, she made her Royal Opera debut as Barbarina/Le Nozze di Figaro, and reprised this role in July 2006. Other roles with the Royal Opera have included Elisa/Il Re Pastore, Une Soeur/Cyrano de Bergerac, Woodbird /Siegfried (cover), Susanna/Le Nozze di Figaro (cover), Tytania/A Midsummer Night’s Dream (cover), Norina/Don Pasquale (cover), Croyble/Thais, Frasquita/Carmen, Serpina/La Serva Padrona, Marzelline/Fidelio (cover), Dorinda/Orlando (cover), and Serpetta/La Finta Giardiniera (cover), and Flower Maiden/Parsifal. In 2007 Ana performed Gretel/Hänsel und Gretel with New Zealand Opera and recorded the role of Ygraine in Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, which was released on the Telarc label. Engagements this season include Pamina/Die Zauberflöte with Glyndebourne Touring Opera, and Frasquita/Carmen with the Russian National Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev in Moscow and with the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam.
