James Baillieu

Described by The Daily Telegraph as ‘in a class of his own’ James Baillieu is one of the leading song and chamber music pianists of his generation.  He has given solo and chamber recitals throughout the world and collaborates with a wide range of singers and instrumentalists including Benjamin Appl, Jamie Barton, Ian Bostridge, Allan Clayton, Louise Alder, Tara Erraught, Lise Davidsen, the Elias and Heath Quartets, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Adam Walker, and Pretty Yende.  As a soloist, he has appeared with the Ulster Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, and the Wiener Kammersymphonie.
Highlights of the 2025/26 season include tours to both the United States, Canada and Europe including recitals in New York, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Washington D.C, and Barcelona. Further highlights include a Wigmore Hall residency comprising three recitals with different partners, and recitals at La Monnaie and Kölner Philharmonie with Véronique Gens. Supplementary to his performance career, James will participate in the jury of the Tenor Viñas Competition and coach with the Welsh National Opera Associate Artist programme.
James is a frequent guest at many of the world’s most distinguished music centres – including Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Metropolitan Opera House, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Vancouver Playhouse, Berlin Konzerthaus, Vienna Musikverein, the Barbican Centre, Wiener Konzerthaus, Bozar Brussels, Pierre Boulez Saal, Cologne Philharmonie, Wiener Staatsoper, Fundación Juan March and the Laeiszhalle Hamburg –  and festivals as Aix-en-Provence, Schleswig-Holstein, Bergen, Edinburgh, Spitalfields, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, City of London and Brighton Festivals. An innovative programmer, he has curated many song and chamber music festivals including series for the Brighton Festival, Wigmore Hall, BBC Radio 3, Verbier Festival, Bath International Festival, and Perth Concert Hall.
Prize winner of the Wigmore Hall Song Competition, Das Lied International Song Competition, the Kathleen Ferrier and Richard Tauber Competitions, he received in 2012 a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and a Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust Award.
Recording projects include ‘Forbidden Fruit’ (Alpha Classics), ‘Winterreise’ (Alpha Classics) and ‘Heimat’ (Sony Classical) with Benjamin Appl, the complete works of CPE Bach for violin and piano with Tamsin Waley-Cohen (Signum Records), and albums on the Chandos, Opus Arte, Champs Hill, Rubicon, and Delphian Record labels as part his critically acclaimed discography. He appears in an exciting new realisation of Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise filmed in the Swiss Alps in winter, commissioned by the BBC and SRF.

James Baillieu is a Senior Professor of Ensemble Piano at the Royal Academy of Music, a coach for the Jette Parker Young Artist Program at the Royal Opera House, a course leader for the Samling Foundation, and is head of the Song Program at the Atelier Lyrique of the Verbier Festival Academy. He is International Tutor in Piano Accompaniment at the Royal Northern College of Music and a trustee of the Countess of Munster Musical Trust. Highly sought after for masterclasses worldwide, recent sessions of learning have brought him to the Aldeburgh Festival, Cleveland Institute of Music, Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Friends of Chamber Music, Portland, Oregon, Vancouver Academy of Music, Canada, and to the University of Waikato, New Zealand.