The English bass, James Ottaway, was a chorister, and later a music student, at King's College, Cambridge.
James Ottaway's diverse range of solo performing experience has taken him to Sicily with Pro Cantiones Antiqua, Tel Aviv with the Israeli Chamber Orchestra, the Queen Elizabeth Hall with the London Sinfonietta, Sadlers Wells with London Festival Ballet, the Amsterdam Concertgebow with the Schoenberg Ensemble, and festivals in France, Italy, Germany and Spain with the Deller Consort, as well as many oratorio appearances with British choral societies. More unusual experiences include being attacked by flying ants during a open-air concert in Provence, singing to an audience of five with the Light Blues in Sweden, due to a lack of publicity, smoking on stage while trying to sing a W.A. Mozart aria with Opera East, and performing for Netherlands Opera with a bald yellow head and purple nose, a style which his wife regarded as something of an improvement.
James Ottaway has taught singing at the Welsh College of Music and Drama, Exeter and Warwick Universities, and Christ's and Jesus Colleges in Cambridge, and has taught on courses at the Deller Academy in Provence, Early Music Wales, and Stavanger College of Music in Norway. He currently teaches at Winchester College, Sherborne School, South Wilts Grammar School for Girls, and privately in Salisbury. After Richard he probably has the most hair in Sarum Six, a situation he hopes will last for a while longer. |