James is a British-born singer, musicologist, conductor, teacher, and translator of Polish and Irish parentage. He began singing as a boy chorister at All Saints, Kingston Parish Church, and with the Tiffin School choir. An early career highlight saw James perform the role of the Shepherd Boy Tosca alongside Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu for two seasons at the Royal Opera House. He subsequently recorded the role for EMI under Antonio Pappano and also appears in the DVD film version of the opera, directed by Benoît Jacquot. James went on to read Music at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (where he was a Choral Exhibitioner) and Royal Holloway, University of London. He completed postgraduate training at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and continues to learn privately with Arwel Treharne Morgan and Jeff Stewart.
James made his international opera debut as Ferrando Così fan tutte with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra at the Birgitta Festival, Tallinn. Other stage roles include Don Ottavio Don Giovanni, Bardolfo Falstaff, Remendado Carmen for OperaUpClose, and Pluto in Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld. He sang the role of Tenor Soloist/Stage Director in the Armonico Consort's highly successful touring production of Too Hot To Handel (Buxton Festival, Malvern Theatres, Theatre Royal Windsor), and created the role of Back-to-Front Policeman in Laura Bowler's The Sandman for Tête-à-Tête Opera Festival. He has also sung Chorus in numerous productions with Grange Park Opera and Opera Holland Park.
As a concert soloist, James has performed much of the standard oratorio repertoire. Highlights include a performance of Mozart's Requiem with the Brandenburg Sinfonia at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London; a programme of works by Monteverdi (including excerpts from the 1610 Vespers) and his contemporaries alongside the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble at Lancaster Priory; and Haydn's The Creation at Southwell Minster.
James made his international opera debut as Ferrando Così fan tutte with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra at the Birgitta Festival, Tallinn. Other stage roles include Don Ottavio Don Giovanni, Bardolfo Falstaff, Remendado Carmen for OperaUpClose, and Pluto in Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld. He sang the role of Tenor Soloist/Stage Director in the Armonico Consort's highly successful touring production of Too Hot To Handel (Buxton Festival, Malvern Theatres, Theatre Royal Windsor), and created the role of Back-to-Front Policeman in Laura Bowler's The Sandman for Tête-à-Tête Opera Festival. He has also sung Chorus in numerous productions with Grange Park Opera and Opera Holland Park.
As a concert soloist, James has performed much of the standard oratorio repertoire. Highlights include a performance of Mozart's Requiem with the Brandenburg Sinfonia at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London; a programme of works by Monteverdi (including excerpts from the 1610 Vespers) and his contemporaries alongside the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble at Lancaster Priory; and Haydn's The Creation at Southwell Minster.
"...with some stunning music to sing, [Don Ottavio] was a good vehicle for James Savage-Hanford's lovely tenor voice" (Surrey Advertiser, August 2014)
A highly accomplished ensemble singer, James has performed throughout the UK and across Europe with consort groups including the Academy of Ancient Music, BBC Singers, English Concert, Sonoro, the Armonico Consort, the Hanover Band, the Platinum Consort, and Musica Saeculorum, and in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Barbican Hall, St John's Smith Square, the Aldeburgh Festival, the St Magnus Festival in Kirkwall, the St Gallen Festival in Switzerland, the Philharmonie Essen, and NOSPR Katowice in Poland. For over a decade prior to relocating to Yorkshire in 2022, he was highly active within the London choral circuit, singing with some of the city's finest church & cathedral choirs.
Alongside his singing engagements, James is increasingly in demand as a musical director. He conducted Ralph Vaughan Williams' Riders to the Sea (in his own piano trio arrangement) and Lennox Berkeley's A Dinner Engagement in a double bill performance for Bute Park Opera, and has assisted on projects for the Cardiff-based Early Music ensemble Sforza, including as Chorus Master for a concert performance of Handel's Semele. He is a former MD of the Coleridge Choir (now fully amalgamated as part of Cambridgeshire Choral Society), and in January 2023 he succeeded Simon Lindley as the musical director of the Overgate Hospice Choir, in Halifax. James has also participated many times (as both a singer and conductor) in masterclasses and specially curated leadership and performance workshops with Danish conductor Peter Hanke and the Voces Academy.
James is also an early career musicologist, and was awarded his PhD in Music from Royal Holloway in 2020. He has research interests in Polish and Romanian modernism, as well as in phenomenology and aesthetics. His debut article (on aesthetic enchantment in George Enescu) is forthcoming in the top-tier Journal of the Royal Musical Association, and he is the founder and curator of the Polish Music Since 1900 Research Network. He has presented his research at major conferences throughout the UK, as well as in Italy and Romania. Other public engagements include a lecture recital on the reception of Karol Szymanowski's music at the Ognisko (Polish Hearth) Club in South Kensington; programme notes and pre-season panel events for Opera Holland Park; and a pre-concert talk on Mahler's Resurrection Symphony at St David's Hall, Cardiff. James is also a published translator of several articles and books (from Polish to English). He has taught a number of historical and analytical topics at Royal Holloway and at the University of Oxford, and is currently a member of the academic music department at Chetham's School of Music.
Alongside his singing engagements, James is increasingly in demand as a musical director. He conducted Ralph Vaughan Williams' Riders to the Sea (in his own piano trio arrangement) and Lennox Berkeley's A Dinner Engagement in a double bill performance for Bute Park Opera, and has assisted on projects for the Cardiff-based Early Music ensemble Sforza, including as Chorus Master for a concert performance of Handel's Semele. He is a former MD of the Coleridge Choir (now fully amalgamated as part of Cambridgeshire Choral Society), and in January 2023 he succeeded Simon Lindley as the musical director of the Overgate Hospice Choir, in Halifax. James has also participated many times (as both a singer and conductor) in masterclasses and specially curated leadership and performance workshops with Danish conductor Peter Hanke and the Voces Academy.
James is also an early career musicologist, and was awarded his PhD in Music from Royal Holloway in 2020. He has research interests in Polish and Romanian modernism, as well as in phenomenology and aesthetics. His debut article (on aesthetic enchantment in George Enescu) is forthcoming in the top-tier Journal of the Royal Musical Association, and he is the founder and curator of the Polish Music Since 1900 Research Network. He has presented his research at major conferences throughout the UK, as well as in Italy and Romania. Other public engagements include a lecture recital on the reception of Karol Szymanowski's music at the Ognisko (Polish Hearth) Club in South Kensington; programme notes and pre-season panel events for Opera Holland Park; and a pre-concert talk on Mahler's Resurrection Symphony at St David's Hall, Cardiff. James is also a published translator of several articles and books (from Polish to English). He has taught a number of historical and analytical topics at Royal Holloway and at the University of Oxford, and is currently a member of the academic music department at Chetham's School of Music.