News
Now Streaming (June 2021)
English Touring Opera
Focus on Amadigi with Harriet Eyley, Rebecca Afonwy-Jones and James Laing
Josquin: Mille Regretz with Ella Taylor and Jorge Navarro Colorado
Grange Park Opera
Owen Wingrave with Ross Ramgobin
L’heure espagnole with Ross Ramgobin
BBC Radio 3
Schumann Plus with Alessandro Fisher
Life VICTORIA, Barcelona
Julien Van Mellaerts in recital with Simon Lepper
L’Orchestre de Chambe de Genève
Copland Old American Songs & Shostakovich Symphony No. 14 with Anush Hovhannisyan
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Schubert (arr. Brahms) Three Songs with Felix Kemp
Tait Tuesdays At Home
Massenet Élégie with Catherine Carby
The Dancing Master: Winner of the 2021 BBC Music Magazine Best Opera Recording Award
The Dancing Master to be performed at the Buxton Festival
Resonus Classics’ new recording of Sir Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master, with a cast including Catherine Carby, Fiona Kimm and Mark Wilde, has been nominated for a 2021 BBC Music Magazine Best Opera Recording Award. This Summer, these artists will feature in a new production of the work presented at the Buxton Festival in association with Red Squirrel Opera.
Featured Ross Ramgobin December 2020 news
During December, Ross Ramgobin was featured in the title role of Grange Park Opera’s new film of Owen Wingrave, as well as appearing in The Royal Opera’s Christmas Concert as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte and in Opera Holland Park’s Christmas Concert, all available for streaming over the Christmas period. A feature interview appears in the January / February issue of Opera Now.
“Ross Ramgobin finds a fierce nobility in the title role that pulls the threads together.”
Neil Fisher - The Times
“Ross Ramgobin, rapidly emerging as a fine singing actor, was sweet, funny and touching as Mozart’s Papageno.”
Tim Ashley – The Guardian
“Ramgobin has been another Christmas bonus – heartbreaking in Grange Park’s Owen Wingrave and partying with gusto in Opera Holand Park’s Christmas bonzanza.”
Claudia Pritchard – Culture Whisper



Whānau: Voices of Aotearoa, Far from Home
To reflect the plight of New Zealand musicians in London during lockdown, Julien Van Mellaerts has organised and curated Whānau: Voices of Aotearoa, Far from home, a selection of New Zealand, Māori and Pasifika songs. Recorded at London’s Royal Albert Hall last month and now available to watch on YouTube, the project was devised to help those artists able neither to return home nor to work during the pandemic. Those featured additionally include Marlena Devoe. The concert can also be heard on Radio New Zealand Concert. You can also hear an interview with Julien Van Mellaerts as he reflects on his own experience during the pandemic.
Critical Acclaim: “The best opera recordings released in 2020 so far”
Resonus Classics’ recording of Sir Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master with a cast including Catherine Carby, Fiona Kimm and Mark Wilde has been selected by BBC Music Magazine as amongst “The best opera recordings released in 2020 so far,” as Editor’s Choice for November 2020 by Gramophone and as a Sunday Times Album of the Week.
You can hear The Dancing Master broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 11 December 2020 as part of the Afternoon Concert.
Also selected by BBC Music Magazine was the Royal Opera’s release on Opus Arte Blu Ray / DVD of Die Walküre with a cast including Alwyn Mellor and Catherine Carby.

Brünnhilde and Sieglinde, with Alwyn Mellor and Lee Bisset.
Alwyn Mellor and Lee Bisset sang Brünnhilde and Sieglinde in the Singapore premiere of Die Walküre with the Orchestra of the Music Makers. You can watch the performed streamed on 1 November at 1700 (GMT +8).
European Association of Artist Managers
James Black Management is delighted to have been elected to membership of the Association Europénne des Agents Artistiques / European Association of Artist Managers (AEAA).
James Black Management is also pleased to announce membership of the Opera Managers Association International.

Adrian Clarke
James Black Management is sad to announce the death on 10 September of much loved baritone Adrian Clarke. He was a joy to work with, full of character and love for his art, and also a most delightful man with a gleeful sense of humour and a nose for a good glass of red.
Our thoughts are with Sarah Pring and his family at this time.