Abigail James

Abigail James is one of the most exciting British guitarists of her generation. She has a passion for contemporary music and has had new works written for her by Michael Zev Gordon, Andrew Keeling and Pete Wyer.
 
Abigail has performed in all the UK's major venues including St. Martin-in-the-fields, St John's Smith Square, the Barbican, The Purcell Room, Conway Hall, the Royal Opera House, Queen Elizabeth Hal, the Royal Festival Hall as well as in Tate Britain's Late at Tate series. Her performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Abigail has also travelled widely, performing in Holland, France, Germany and Japan.
 
Abigail has taken on some of the most challenging guitar parts of the twentieth century in Maxwell Davies' two operas The Martydom of St Magnus (Music Theatre Wales) and The Lighthouse (The Opera Group) and in Boulez'x Le Marteau sans Maitre. She toured the UK with Music Theatre Wales and eprformed with them in Quimper's Festival des Mondes Celtes and Dusseldorf's Sechs Tage festival. Abigail has played with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Music Players, Reservoir and was a leading member of the London Guitar Trio. She has a regular duo with flautist Rowland Sutherland.
 
Abigail formed a unique partnership with choreographer and dancer Sarah Warsop and together they performed Pete Wyer's solo Flap for the Cutting Edge series at The Warehouse. For this highly accalimed concert and the resulting Cutting Edge tour, Abigail commissioned choreographer Joanne Fong to create a dance film to accompany Phil Cashian's piece Black Venus.
 
Her interest in innovative artisitc collaboration has taken her on tour in Japan with Hartland Chamber Opera and Japanese puppet group Saruhachi-Za in a production of The She-Fox of Shinoda, a Japanese folk tale set to music by British composer Colin Hodgetts. She has also performed with contemporary dance group Snag Project at the Clore Studio of the Royal Opera House, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Cardiff's The Blue Room and in Swindon's Taking Risks Festival.

Abigail has recorded for NMC, Burning Shed and most recently Delphian Reocrds for a CD of Edward McGurie's music with pianist Dominic Saunders and flautist Nancy Ruffer.