Jamie W. Hall
The English bass baritone, Jamie W. Hall, is a concert soloist and consort singer. He performs with a number of professional groups and liturgical choirs - including a full-time poition with the BBC Singers - and with his own specialist early music consort, CONTINUUM.
Biography
Born “up north”, in the heart of the Nottinghamshire coalfield, Jamie’s early music making was encouraged by his grandfather who, as well as buying him his first electronic “organ”, (two octaves, one pound!) gave him his first singing lesson; “You’ve got to stick your tongue in the roof of your mouth to sound like a professional”. Fortunately that technique proved too elusive to master but the enthusiasm for music, played and sung, stayed with him leading to his taking up the piano.
Jamie’s singing career began when a rather frank appraisal of his keyboard skills lead him to the conclusion that his career as a concert pianist was going nowhere! Since then he has studied voice, beginning his professional life with the cathedral choirs of Chester and Winchester where he developed a passion for liturgical choral music.
Now a member of the world-famous BBC Singers, he has performed extensively in some of the most iconic buildings in the UK and beyond and has broadcast on BBC radio and television, most notably singing solos in Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle under David Hill, Handel’s Dixit Dominus with James O’Donnell and St James’s Baroque and Zeisl’s Requiem Ebraico with Johannes Wildner and the BBC Concert Orchestra.
He also sings with Polyphony, Chapelle du Roi, RSVP voices, the Temple Singers and CONTINUUM along with many of London’s finest liturgical choirs.
Jamie is often in demand as a soloist, performing oratorio with choirs and orchestras across the UK. His recent engagements include Verdi’s Requiem at Ely Cathedral with Stephen Cleobury and CUMS, Handel’s The Messiah at Romsey Abbey with Charavari Agreable Simfonie, Bach’s St John Passion at Guildford Cathedral with Guildford Cathedral Choir, Tippet’s A Child of Our Time at Chichester Cathedral (UC Orchestra and chorus) and Haydn’s Creation at Winchester Cathedral. (Winchester and County Music Festival)
He has also performed Handel’s The Messiah and Bach’s Mass in B minor with The 18th Century Concert Orchestra, Handel’s The Passion of Christ and The Messiah with The English Haydn Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with The London Concertante, Bach’s Magnificat with Southern Sinfonia, Handel’s Isreal in Egypt with The Chameleon Arts Orchestra, Brahms’ German Requiem with the Church Colleges Choir Festival, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle with Nicholas Wilks/Malcolm Archer/Winchester Music Club and Beethoven’s Mass in C and Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the Yehudi Menuhin School.
Also a choral conductor, Jamie’s 2012 season will be spent working with Romsey Choral Society giving concerts of Durufle’s Requiem and Elgar’s The Music Makers with the Southampton Philharmonic Orchestra.
Jamie’s first published composition, As I Lay Upon A Night - a short advent carol for unaccompanied choir – received its broadcast premiere in 2011 on BBC Radio 3 with Paul Brough and the BBC Singers and was also performed in concerts in Winchester and London during the Christmas period.
Jamie spends much of his free time on his allotment in Winchester enjoying the silence!
He continues to study with Ryland Davies.
Jamie is represented by Chameleon Arts Management.
