James Bourne: Pianist/Coach
James Bourne is known both as a solo performer and as a collaborative artist. He holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in performance and collaborative piano as well as an undergraduate degree in French language and literature from the University of Western Ontario. He also holds a postgraduate diploma in performance from the Royal College of Music, London,England. His studies have taken him as far as Belgium, where he was a student of Francois Thiry at the Conservatoire royal de musique de Liage.
James's recent teachers have included John Hess, John-Paul Bracey, Peter Smith (UWO), and John Barstow (RCM).
James has been the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including Western's Alumni Gold Medal in 1996. He has coached and performed at the Banff Centre's Contemporary Opera and Song programme, and has appeared at the summer festivals of Banff and Tanglewood in concerts of both chamber music and art song. He has worked as a pianist with conductors Helmuth Rilling, Benjamin Zander, Robert Spano and Seiji Ozawa among others, and is now delighted to be working now with Noel Edison and the Mendelssohn Choir.
He is a founding member of the Maplewood Artists Collective, which presented the Canadian premiere of Evidence of Things Not Seen, a 90-minute song cycle by Ned Rorem in 2003. James appears regularly with Oriana Women's Choir, the MacMillan Singers at the University of Toronto, and indulges his great love for art song and chamber music in recitals with other passionate musicians from Canada and abroad. He also worked with Orpheus Choir, Toronto Children's Chorus and Toronto Philharmonia. James especially loves his work coaching fine singers, and he is Director of Music at Leaside Presbyterian Church. |
