James Newby & Joseph Middleton

Baritone James Newby, former BBC New Generation Artist and Rising Star of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, joins renowned pianist, Joseph Middleton for a concert of maritime inspired song.

The Shipping Forecast

Mysteries of the deep
Franz Schubert - Gruppe aus dem Tartarus
Franz Schubert - Meeres Stille
Clara Schumann - Lorelei
Henri Duparc - La vague et la cloche
Granville Bantock - Song to the seals
Cheryl Frances Hoad - Rita the Pirate
Franz Schubert - Fischerweise

Invitation to Voyage
John Ireland - Sea Fever
Franz Schubert - Des Fischers Liebesglück
Charles Ives - The Swimmers
Henri Duparc - L’invitation au voyage

Exotic Isles
Emmanuel Chabrier - L’ile heureuse
Sergei Rachmaninov - The Isle (op 14 no 2)
Edward Elgar - Where Corals Lie
Franz Schubert - Der Schiffer
Michael Tippett - Songs for Ariel
Henri Duparc - La vie anterieue

Fearless Bark
Henry Purcell - I’ll sail upon the dog star
arr Benjamin Britten - Sail on sail on
Johannes Brahms - Verzagen
arr Benjamin Britten - Waly waly
Michael Head - The ships of Arcady
Gerald Finzi - Channel firing
Armstrong Gibbs - Sailing homeward

Desert Island Discs
Eric Coates - Sleepy Lagoon
Charles Stanford - Drake’s Drum
arr Benjamin Britten - Tom Bowling
Kurt Weill - My Ship
Cole Porter - Tale of the Oyster

A recipient of the Richard Tauber Prize for best interpretation of a Schubert Lied at the 2015 Wigmore Hall/Kohn International Song Competition, James Newby has since enjoyed a close relationship with the Hall. Appearances there include Mahler Rückert-Lieder in 2023 with Mitsuko Uchida as part of BBT’s 20th anniversary celebrations, Die schöne Müllerin with Simon Lepper and a mixed programme of Dowland, Schubert, Wolf and Liszt with Joseph Middleton. A member of the Ensemble of the Staatsoper Hannover from 2019 to 2022 he garnered particular praise for his debut as Eddy in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek. Other important role debuts in Hannover included Guglielmo Così fan tutte and the title role in Eugene Onegin.

James has since appeared at Opéra national du Rhin; Theater an der Wien; made his Garsington Opera debut in 2024 as Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and returned to Hannover, as a guest, for Eugene Onegin. This season James will appear as Demetrius A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Opera North and at Opéra de Lausanne in a Laurent Pelly production, as well as Guglielmo for Norwegian National Opera, making his house debut in all three venues. The 2024/25 season also includes an important new commission for baritone by Michael Zev Gordon with the Britten Sinfonia; The Poet in Otto Ketting’s Ithaka Symphony for solo baritone with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra; and recitals at the Oxford Song Festival, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the National Concert Hall, Dublin. Past concert performances include Haydn The Creation with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bart Van Reyn; Handel’s Messiah with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen; Berlioz with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Mozart with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also performed baroque repertoire with conductors David Bates, Jonathan Cohen and John Butt and toured in Europe with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century.

Recordings remain an important part of his schedule and his 2020 debut solo album I Wonder as I Wander (BIS) with pianist Joseph Middleton met with worldwide acclaim and was awarded the Diapason d’Or Découverte.
James studies with Robert Dean.

Pianist Joseph Middleton specialises in the art of song accompaniment and chamber music and has been internationally acclaimed within this field. Described in the BBC Music Magazine as “one of the brightest stars in the world of song and Lieder”, he has also been labelled “the cream of the new generation” by The Times and “a perfect accompanist” by Opera Now.

Joseph enjoys fruitful partnerships with internationally established singers including Sir Thomas Allen, Louise Alder, Mary Bevan, Ian Bostridge, Allan Clayton, Dame Sarah Connolly, Marianne Crebassa, Iestyn Davies, Fatma Said, Samuel Hasselhorn, Christiane Karg, Katarina Karnéus, Angelika Kirchschlager, Dame Felicity Lott, Christopher Maltman, John Mark Ainsley, Ann Murray, James Newby, Mark Padmore, Mauro Peter, Miah Persson, Carolyn Sampson, and Roderick Williams. He collaborates with rising stars from the younger generation and regularly programmes his own series for BBC Radio 3. Joseph Middleton is Director of Leeds Lieder, Musician in Residence at, and a Bye-Fellow of Pembroke College Cambridge and a Professor and Fellow at his alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music. He was the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist of the Year Award in 2017.

Learn more & book: James Newby & Joseph Middleton | University of Leeds International Concert Series