Hailed as “sensitive and precise” and “hauntingly beautiful” (New Classic LA), James Onstad is an active performer at the leading edge of classical music. Audiences across America have seen him as a recitalist, oratorio singer, and operatic performer with companies including the Chicago Lyric Opera Unlimited, Los Angeles’ The Industry, the American Repertory Theater, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
As an operatic performer, James is committed to new and relevant work. He has performed regularly with the Los Angeles experimental opera company, The Industry, and brought to life the the role of Orfeo in their monumental production of Hopscotch – a mobile, immersive operatic experience, which Alex Ross of the New Yorker called “awe inspiring.” And in 2017, he premiered the role of Ted Hinton in an Industry production of Andrew McIntosh’s new opera Bonnie and Clyde. James has also collaborated closely with the young American composer Matthew Aucoin. He premiered the role of Jake in Aucoin’s Second Nature with Chicago Lyric Opera Unlimited and sang in the world premiere of Aucoin’s Crossing with the American Repertory Theater in 2015 and the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2017. This November, James will make his debut with the LA Philharmonic in a production of John Cage’s Europeras I & II . Traditional operatic credits include Sam (Kurt Weill’s Street Scene), Candide (Bernstein’s Candide), Amida (Cavalli’s L’Ormindo), and Tom Rakewell (Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress).
James is a passionate interpreter of Art Song and has has honed this craft under guidance of the masters of our time. He was a Stern Fellow at Songfest in 2013 where he studied with Margo Garrett and Martin Katz. In 2017, he was invited to the Hidden Valley Music Festival to study German Lieder with Graham Johnson and Sir Thomas Allan. James is engaged for a number of recitals in the 2018-2019 season. In March of 2019, he will present a recital of French song with La Salon de Musiques Chamber Music series in Los Angeles. And in the late Spring of 2019, he will tour the Southwest alongside the acclaimed guitarist David Leisner with a program of music for tenor and guitar.
On the concert stage, James has made his mark as a talented and versatile soloist. In December of 2017, he was the tenor soloist and evangelist in a one-on-a-part presentation Bach’s Magnificat and Christmas Oratorio with Musica Angelica—“Southern California’s most important early music ensemble” (LA Times). In August of 2018, James will make his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a street singer in Leonard Bernstein’s Mass. Previous concert highlights include the tenor soloist in the Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, Carissimi’s Jonas, Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus, Benjamin Britten’s Spring Symphony, as well as newer works, including Leonard Bernstein’s Songfest and Zachary Wadsworth’s Venus and Adonis.
A native of Santa Fe, NM, James Onstad holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Harvard University and a master’s degree in vocal performance from the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM).