James Laing studied at Uppingham School and was a choral scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, furthering his studies at the Royal College of Music. He was selected by OPERA NOW as amongst ‘Who’s Hot’ for his performance as Nerone Agrippina at the London Handel Festival.

Current engagements include Trinculo The Tempest for his debut at the Wiener Staatsoper; Oberon A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Korea National Opera, Opera North and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; The Refugee Flight for State Opera of South Australia; and The Cherub Figaro Gets a Divorce for Royal Swedish Opera. 

His operatic engagements have further included performances for the Royal Opera, London; Classical Opera; English National Opera; English Touring Opera; Garsington Opera; Glyndebourne Festival Opera; The Grange Festival; Grange Park Opera; Opera Holland Park; Opera North; Scottish Opera; Welsh National Opera; Den Jyske Opera; the Opéra de Nice; Theater Aachen; the Göttingen Festival; the Landestheater Linz; the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden; the Icelandic Opera; and the Zurich Opera. His repertoire has included Apollo Death in Venice, Oberon A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Endimione La Calisto; Giuliano Eliogabalo, Nerillo L’Ormindo, The Refugee Flight, Raphael Tobias and the Angel, Orfeo Orfeo ed Euridice, Demetrio Berenice, Tolomeo Giulio Cesare, Tirinto Imeneo, Medoro Orlando, Armindo Partenope, Bertarido Rodelinda, Zephyrus Apollo and Hyacinthus, Ascanio Ascanio in Alba and Zelim La verita in cimento. Created roles include Peter Brødre (Daniel Bjarnason), Hamlet The Firework Maker’s Daughter (David Bruce), Coachman / Fox The Adventures of Pinocchio (Jonathan Dove), Terry Marnie (Nico Muhly) and Cheshire Cat Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Will Todd).

Concert engagements have included performances with the Academy of Ancient Music, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, the Dunedin Consort, The English Concert, the Hallé and the Royal Northern Sinfonia. International engagements have included performances with Arion Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik, Toronto, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Les Agrémens, Les Arts Florissants, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Camerata, the Netherlands Bach Society, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, the Polski Chór Kameralny, the National Orchestra of Spain and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He appeared in Other Shakespearean Dreamers at The Liceu, Barcelona, and also in Jonathan Miller’s production of the St Matthew Passion at the National Theatre.

Conductors with whom he has worked include David Charles Abell, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Harry Bicket, Avner Biron, Roland Böer, Ivor Bolton, Martyn Brabbins, John Butt, William Christie, Harry Christophers, Stephen Cleobury, Brad Cohen, Laurence Cummings, Christian Curnyn, Ottavio Dantone, Richard Farnes, Paul Goodwin, Nicholas Kraemer, Stephen Layton, Paul McCreesh, Alessandro de Marchi, Ian Page, David Parry, Ari Rasilainen, Timothy Redmond, Daniel Reuss, Robert Spano, Stuart Stratford, Ivars Taurin, Jos van Veldhoven, Alexander Weimann and Ryan Wigglesworth.

His performance with Opera North in The Adventures of Pinocchio is available on Opus Arte Blu Ray / DVD and his recordings include Tobias and the Angel on Chandos CD (selected as a GRAMOPHONE CD of the Month for September 2010), Focus on Amadigi for English Touring Opera’s 2021 Digital Season and J. S. Bach Magnificat on Atma CD.

This is his debut with Nashville Symphony.