James was born in Melbourne and studied at the Victorian College of the Arts where he graduated with high distinction. He was a Victoria State Opera Young Artist. He was awarded the Opera Foundation Australia German Operatic Award which gave him a contract with Oper Köln and was also awarded: the AIMS Award, Graz; Australian Opera Auditions Committee Scholarship; Dame Joan Sutherland Scholarship; The Tait Memorial Trust Scholarship; an Australian Musical Foundation London grant and a Bayreuth Bursary.
Roles he has performed include: Germont; Conte di Luna; Escamillo; Figaro (Barbiere); Guglielmo; Figaro (Nozze), Commendatore, il frate ( Don Carlos) and The Poet (Prima la Musica, Salieri).
Companies he has worked for include: Victoria State Opera; Melbourne Opera Opera Australia; Longborough Festival; Abbey Opera; Meistersingers Ltd; Pocket Opera Nürnberg (Der Ring in einem Abend arr. David Seaman) at the Covent Garden and Bath Festivals; Cambridge University Opera Society (Bill, Maschinist Hopkins, Brand; Der Mann Schwergewicht, Krenek; and The Mayor Der Held, Mosolov); UCL Opera (The King, The King and the Marshal, [Drot og Mask], Heise).
Recently he has sung Conte di Luna for Pavilion Opera, the title role in Simon Boccanegra for OperaUK London and Kothner, Die Meistersingers, with Edinburgh Players Opera Group. Future engagements for 2008 include: the title role in Rigoletto for New Devon Opera in July; Songs of Travel (Vaughan Williams) in Cycles at Cadogan Hall in September, the title role in Der fliegende Holländer at the Barbican with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Lionel Friend in November and Don Pizarro in Fidelio at Cadogan Hall with the RPO conducted by Madeleine Lovell in February 2009.
"The heroically ringing voice of James Hancock rang throughout the theatre" The Spectator, Michael Tanner
"Most
striking of all was James Hancock as Boccanegra...... Hancock made
Boccanegra a living, believable character, with pleasing voice and
committed delivery." www.classicalsource.com Nick Breckenfield
"Hancock sang the Strauss group with a thrilling voice of searing intensity" Melbourne Age, Clive Connell
James Hancock