James Reese sings with “intensity and sensitivity…spirituality and eloquence” (Chestnut Hill Local). He is an exciting and expressive young soloist who performs with leading orchestras and ensembles throughout North America. James is noted for giving performances that are both "splendid" (San Francisco Chronicle) and "captivating" (Broad Street Review). Following his Carnegie Hall solo debut in Bach’s B Minor Mass with the New York Choral Society, the New York Classical Review noted “the high, easy tenor of James Reese…floated beautifully on its own over the long, gentle lines of the Benedictus.” More recently, James made his debut with the American Bach Soloists in Handel’s Messiah, of which Classical Sonoma wrote, “It would have been nearly impossible to find a more satisfying quartet than the young singers who graced this performance…tenor James Reese especially sang with telling dramatic urgency and effortlessly produced fioritura."
The 2023/24 season sees James' orchestra debuts with Tafelmusik, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Altera, and Symphony Nova Scotia. He will sing the evangelist in Bach's St. Matthew and St. John Passions in 2024, in California and at Duke Chapel in North Carolina. He maintains close relationships with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the American Bach Soloists, The Sebastians, TENET Vocal Artists, and the Washington Bach Consort, among others. In 2022, he made his debut with the Boston Early Music Festival, performing in three French Baroque operas of Lully, Charpentier, and Desmarest over the festival's yearlong season; he returns to the concert stage with BEMF in 2024.
James is an active recitalist and presents song recitals with his friend and collaborator, pianist Daniel Overly. Together, they debuted at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society in 2022, and maintain a busy schedule of recitals throughout North America each season. Additionally, James often performs with leading vocal ensembles; among them, Blue Heron (multiple performances at Laus Polyphoniae in Antwerp in August 2023), The Crossing (tour of Sweden and Helsinki in collaboration with Klockriketeatern), TENET Vocal Artists, and Seraphic Fire.
James has recorded on a wide range of labels, among them ECM, CPO (Chandos), Nonesuch Records, and Navona. He appears on the Boston Early Music Festival's most recent operatic release of Henry Desmarest's Circé as Mercure. Additionally, he is a soloist on the GRAMMY-nominated album Born, released by The Crossing. He also appears on The Crossing's release of Gavin Bryars’ The Fifth Century, which won a GRAMMY Award for Best Choral Performance in 2018. He also appears on several discs released on the Hyperion Label, including singing the Evangelist in Heinrich Schütz’s Christmas Oratorio on Historia der Geburt Christi 'The Christmas story', SWV435, released in 2019. Of that performance, The Academy of Sacred Drama wrote, “A series of scenes was connected by a single narrator, the Evangelist; the bulk of the singing lay with Mr. Reese, who impressed with his agile voice and penetrating timbre.”
He is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. He holds a Master's degree from Yale University’s School of Music, where he studied with James Taylor at the Institute of Sacred Music. He is the 2018 winner of the Margot Fassler Award at Yale University. He is also a winner of the Career Advancement Award, which recognizes "especially promising young artists", from the Musical Fund Society. He lives in Philadelphia.