KERNOW CLASSICS - Key Persons

James Murray is a well-known musical consultant, discographer, writer, speaker and musicologist who founded and runs Kernow Classics, drawing on years of experience and expertise in the classical music field. James' particular expertise and research interests in performance history and classical and vocal recordings are in regular demand by the film and advertising industries, opera companies and major record labels. James founded and ran Magdalen, a highly acclaimed archive label and in 2014 set up Amare Classics to continue bringing forward to the discerning public rare and legendary classical performances. James has lived and studied in Florence, Salzburg and London, where he sang with various opera companies, participating in many British premieres. His musical tastes were fashioned at an early age by Gilbert and Sullivan (he was renowned at the tender age of 6 for his ability to recite whole G and S operettas!) and by the Furtwängler film of Don Giovanni. His love of vocal music and opera continues to this day; privileged to see various legendary performances at major European opera houses he was also fortunate to work at Glyndebourne, the source of many amusing backstage stories. James has delivered courses on many musical subjects including Opera in Nineteenth Century Italy, Gilbert & Sullivan, and a more generic Introduction to Opera. He is also in demand as a speaker for pre-performance talks and after-dinner speeches, and has spoken to Recorded Music Societies and other organisations on subjects as varied as Emmanuel Chabrier, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, the Mozart /da Ponte operas, Eduard Künneke, and Music in Germany 1920 - 1945. James attended OBERTO conferences in 2013; Classical:Next in 2012 and 2013; and the RMA conference in 2014.