James Atkinson
is a graduate of the Royal College of Music Opera Studio, where he studied with Alison Wells. He won First Prize at the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards 2018, First Prize and the Audience Prize at the Somerset Song Prize 2019 and the Schubert Prize at the Mozart Competition 2019.

James is in high demand as a recitalist and has performed at the North Norfolk Music Festival, London Song Festival, the Lewes Song Festival, the Ludlow English Song Weekend, and the Red House, Aldeburgh. His September 2021 recital with Sholto Kynoch at the Lammermuir Festival was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 as the Lunchtime Live Concert.

He has made multiple appearances at the Oxford Lieder Festival, including two lecture-recitals with Dr Natasha Loges: ‘Clara Schumann: Rethinking the Myth’ in 2019 and ‘Brahms’s Circle and the Musical Past’ in 2020. The latter was streamed worldwide, and an extract featured on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune. James also appeared in Oxford Lieder’s Winter into Spring festival in 2021, which was live-streamed from the Holywell Music Room and presented by Petroc Trelawny.

With the RCM Opera Studio, James has sung the roles of Buonafede Il mondo della luna, Sam Trouble in Tahiti, Le Gendarme Les mamelles de Tirésias, Blazes The Lighthouse and Ramiro L’heure espagnole, and was due to sing Papageno, before it was cancelled due to COVID-19. Other roles include Boots Der Rosenkavalier (Garsington Opera), Lysander The Enchanted Island with (British Youth Opera), Papageno (Hurn Court Opera), and cover Aeneas Dido and Aeneas (English Touring Opera). In 2022, James makes his debut with Welsh National Opera, singing Masetto in Don Giovanni.

"So confident was his stage manner and command of Schubert’s music, with Burnside as his guide, that he proclaimed himself a natural lieder singer and linguist, savouring the words almost as idiomatically as a native German speaker, his lovely lyric baritone responding to the words with invigorating warmth. As a recitalist he’s clearly a name to watch.” (Hugh Canning, The Times)

Tippett Quartet
regularly appear at Kings Place, Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Bridgewater Hall and frequently perform on BBC Radio 3. They have performed at the BBC Proms and toured Europe, Canada and Mexico. Their broad and diverse repertoire highlights the Tippett Quartet’s unique versatility. Their impressive catalogue of recordings have been released on Naxos, EMI Classics, Signum, Decca, Classic FM, SOMM Records, Vivat, Guild, Real World, Dutton Epoch and Tocatta Classics with universal critical acclaim.

The Tippett Quartet recently worked on a groundbreaking reimagining of Beethoven’s iconic Op. 135 with composer/soundscape artist Matthew Herbert for a BBC Radio 3 broadcast, which was also used as the BBC TV ident. They have also given numerous world and UK premieres including works by John Adams, Howard Goodall and Stephen Dodgson.

In 2013 the Tippett Quartet rediscovered Gustav Holst’s Fantasy on British Folk Songs which, with the help of the eminent musicologist Roderick Swanston, they were able to complete and give a world premiere on BBC Radio 3. They have also worked with Peter Maxwell-Davies for a performance of his 9th Quartet at the South Bank, with Anthony Payne on his Quartet No.1 for a live BBC broadcast from Spitalfields Festival, and Hugh Wood on his String Quartet No.3 at the Presteigne Festival.

2016 saw the quartet commission pianist and composer Alissa Firsova to write her ‘Tennyson Fantasia’ , a project supported by The Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust, Ambache Trust and Nicholas Boas Trust. It was premiered at Kings Place with the actor Finbar Lynch reciting Tennyson’s poems and was subsequently performed on BBC Radio 3 and at various concert venues across the UK. They also appeared on the Decca CD release of Damian Montagu’s music, in which they accompanied the actor Hugh Bonneville narrating his own poetry. A live premiere of both poetry and music was premiered at Chichester’s Minerva Theatre.

In 2011 they celebrated the anniversary of the iconic film composer Bernard Herrmann with a series of concerts and radio broadcasts alongside quartets by Miklos Rozsa and Eric Korngold. They also commissioned a unique string quartet arrangement of the “Psycho” film score, which Norma Herrmann, Bernard’s widow, granted them special permission to make and perform. She also accompanied them on several occasions to give pre-concert talks on Herrmann’s life and music. In 2016, the Tippett Quartet continued their link with film composers when they gave the premiere of Alberto Iglesias’ string quartet No.1 in Madrid.

In 2014 the Tippett Quartet started a collaboration with some of the UK’s finest Jazz musicians with the launch of their ‘Close To You’ project featuring Matt Ford – a tribute to the album that Frank Sinatra made with the Hollywood String Quartet. They are now continuing this collaboration featuring singer and broadcaster Claire Martin OBE. Both projects have lead to performances throughout the UK, a Radio 3 broadcast and concerts at Snape Proms, Ronnie Scott’s and Pizza Express, Dean Street.

Alongside a busy touring schedule, the Tippett Quartet pursues a keen interest in educational work with both schools and universities. They were Ensemble in Residence at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University for 2012-13 and since September 2015 they began two exciting new residencies at Royal Holloway University, London and St Edmund’s School, Canterbury. They are also featured in the new Boosey & Hawkes publication “4 Strings” edited and compiled by Liz Partridge.