James Gilchrist, a former chorister at New College, Oxford, began his working life as a doctor, turning in 1996 to a full-time career in music, bringing collaboration with leading ensembles and colleagues. His operatic performances include the rôles of Quint in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Scaramuccio in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, and Evandre in Gluck’s Alceste, while his many recordings include Bach’s St Matthew Passion and St John Passion (8.557296-97), Missa Brevis and Cantatas, Rachmaninov’s Vespers, sacred music by Schütz, Rameau’s Cantatas and St Mark Passion, songs by Percy Grainger, and sacred music by Kuhnau, together with the title rôle in Britten’s Albert Herring, part of a wide operatic and concert repertoire. He is among the leading British tenors in eighteenth-century repertoire, to which he adds an interest in contemporary music, with a number of first performances to his credit.