BIOGRAPHY
Abigail James is one of the most exciting guitarists in the UK today, with a passion for contemporary music and commitment to widening the guitar repertoire and its role in music-making. As a Scholarship student at the Royal College of Music, studying with Carlos Bonell, she won the RCM prize for the performance of a work by a student composer and the Madeline Walton Guitar Prize. She also took part in a recording of John Lambert's Tread Softly for a CD of his music on NMC. In 1999 she was a finalist in the South East Music Schemes' Musicians' Platform and in 2000 she reached the Semi-Final of the Royal Overseas League Music Competition. In January 2001 she gave her Purcell Room debut in the Park Lane Group Young Concert Artists Series, and her performance was broadcast as a highlight of the series on BBC Radio 3's Hear and Now programme. She has performed in Holland, France, Germany and Japan.
Abigail has given acclaimed performances in venues including St Martin-in-the-Fields, St John's Smith Square, St James's Church Piccadilly, Barbican, The Purcell Room, Tate Britain, Conway Hall, Clore Studio (Royal Opera House), Queen Elizabeth Hall (South Bank). She has given recitals for music clubs and guitar societies around the country at Redbridge, Southampton, Curry Rivel, Herne Bay, Canterbury and appeared in festivals including Buxton, Canterbury, Warwick, Cheltenham, Charlton Kings Guitar Festival, Bath International Guitar Festival and the Guitar Festival of Great Britain.
Abigail has taken on some of the most challenging guitar parts of the twentieth century in Maxwell Davies' two operas The Martyrdom of St Magnus and The Lighthouse and Boulez's Le Marteau sans Maître. In 2000 she toured with The Opera Group (St Magnus) and in 2001 played with Music Theatre Wales (The Lighthouse) on their summer and autumn UK tours at venues from Newcastle's Playhouse to the Linbury Theatre of the Royal Opera House. She also joined them in Quimper's Festival des Mondes Celtes and Düsseldorf's Sechs Tage Festival. Abigail has also performed with contemporary ensembles Reservoir and The Modern Consort.
Abigail's debut solo CD Equinox with Riverrun Records is due for release in Winter 2003 and includes music by Elliott Carter, Peter Sculthorpe, Louis Andriessen, Toru Takemitsu, Phil Cashian, Michael Zev Gordon, Piers Hellawell, Gilbert Biberian and Pete Wyer.
Her passion for innovative artistic collaboration has taken her on tour in Japan with Hartland Chamber Opera and Japanese puppet group Saruhachi-Za in a production of The She-Fox of Shinoda, a Japanese folk tale, set to music by British composer Colin Hodgetts. She has also performed extensively with contemporary dance group Snag Project at the Clore Studio of the Royal Opera House, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Greenwich Dance Agency and Swindon's Taking Risks Festival.
As a chamber musician Abigail is a leading member of the London Guitar Trio. Their vibrant modern repertoire features Spanish and Latin American works, world music from Bulgarian folk to Brazilian jazz, arrangements of Renaissance fantasias and over a dozen new pieces written especially for the trio. They have recently taken part in Gloucestershire's Rural Touring Scheme Air in G and performed in Charlton Kings Guitar Festival, Adur Festival and Brighton Fringe Festival.
Abigail also plays regularly as part of Ceciliana Flute and Guitar Duo and has formed an artistic partnership with Snag Project's choreographer and dancer Sarah Warsop.