James Vaughan | Piano

The Irish-born pianist, James Vaughan, has long been established, as one of Europe's most sought-after accompanists and operatic coaches.

He graduated with an honours degree in composition and musicology from Trinity College Dublin. At the same time he was awarded the Fellowship of Trinity College London and the prestigious Mendelssohn Foundation, also in London, as a soloist. Invitations to appear as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland in concerti of Mozart, Shostakovich and Rakhmaninoff.

His preference for music-making with singers and instrumentalists, however, soon led to invitations to appear at many of Europe’s leading festivals including the Festival of the Accademia Chigiana di Siena with renowned violinist Riccardo Brengola and cellist Alain Meunier, at the festival of Sermoneta with leading clarinettist Antony Pay, and as the pianist for the master classes of many leading singers including Sena Jurinac, Christa Ludwig, Brigitte Fassbaender and James King, throughout Europe. He appeared as soloist in the Golden Room of the Vienna MusikVerein, and thereafter performed frequently in all the major Viennese concert venues, MusikVerein, BrahmsSaal and Konzerthaus, both as Lied-accompanist and as founder-member of the chamber-music group "Ensemble Contrasts Vienna". The ensemble was invited to give its own series of concerts in the Vienna Konzerthaus, and a subsequent C.D. recording of works by Brahms, Bartok and Glinka was launched by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (O.R.F.).

In the field of Opera, having worked for several seasons with the Dublin Grand Opera Society (Opera Ireland), James Vaughan accepted a three year Italian Government Scholarship to study Italian culture and language at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Immediately following this, he was appointed Studienleiter (Head of Music Staff) at the WienerKammerOper, which group he accompanied on tour to Japan in the Mozart year 1991. He was subsequently engaged by the Vienna State Opera (WienerStaatsOper) as SoloKorrepetitor working with most of today's leading conductor`s and singers including Claudio Abbado, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Barbara Frittoli, Leo Nucci, Agnes Baltsa, Natalie Dessay, Renato Bruson and Edita Gruberova.

He was chosen to assist Mstslav Rostropovic in the world premiere of Schnittke's last opera "Gesualdo", to prepare singers for the belated premiere of Krenek's opera "Kehraus um Sankt Stefan" in the presence of the composer, and was elected to assist at the rehearsals for the debut of Carlo Maria Giulini in 1996. He appeared regularly as cembalist in the operas of Mozart, Gluck and Rossini, and on a further seventy occasions as pianist and keyboard player in the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera - the Vienna Philharmonic.

In 1990, James Vaughan was assumed onto the staff of the Hochschule fuer Musik und Darstellende Kunst (the University of Vienna) as lecturer in Piano and Score-reading. From the mid-nineties, James Vaughan became increasingly in demand by International Opera companies for the preparation of their singers. Hence followed invitations to Italy, to the Teatro Reggio di Torino, Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova and the Teatro Dante Alighieri di Ravenna, to the Megaron theatre in Athens, to the inauguration of the Sao Pedro theatre of Sao Paolo, Brasil, to the launching of the first New Zealand "Ring" cycle in Wellington Auckland and Christchurch.

Further invitations to festivals throughout Europe, in the middle-east and in Japan and China followed,

In 1998 James Vaughan was invited by Maestro Riccardo Muti to assist in his production of "Goetterdaemmerung" at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Since then he has worked with Riccardo Muti on seventeen productions including all of the productions in the Verdi anniversary year in 2001.

In addition to his duties at Teatro alla Scala, James Vaughan has, since 1999 been a regular visitor to the Opera de la Bastille in Paris, at the invitation of the Music Director, James Conlon.

He has most recently appeared in recital with soprano Barbara Frittoli,at the Teatro Liceu of Barcelona, the Wigmore Hall in London , the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the Lincoln Centre in New York, the MusikVerein in Vienna. Moreover, James Vaughan has accompanied renowned baritone Leo Nucci in a recital to celebrate 30 years of his career at Teatro alla Scala, a DVD of which has been released.

In 2005, James Vaughan was appointed Head of Music Staff at Teatro alla Scala di Milano.

In December 2012 he will make in debut at Canergie Hall in New York for a concert with violinist Ivan Zenaty.

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