James Wells is a tenor who began his singing career as a chorister in the choir of King’s College, in Cambridge, his hometown. Whilst studying for his MA in Solo Voice Ensemble Singing, with Robert Hollingworth and Alex Ashworth, James was a choral scholar at York Minster, and a member of the Genesis Sixteen 2022/23 programme. On leaving York, James became a Lay Clerk at Winchester Cathedral, a position he has held since September 2023.

James also sings as a freelancer with various groups such as Ex Cathedra (where he was a graduate scholar 2023-24), I Fagiolini, The Lyons Mouth, De Profundis, and has upcoming engagements with Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Constellation Choir and Orchestra.

1. How long have you been a member of Ex Cathedra and why did you join?

This is my third year singing with Ex Cathedra and so far, I’ve absolutely loved it! If I’d known then how much I’d come to value working with Ex Cathedra, I’d have been a lot more nervous about the audition! Both in terms of the music I’ve had the opportunity to perform, and the friends I’ve made within the group, working with Ex Cathedra has been a delight.

2. What does a typical day look like for you?

A normal day in my life revolves around the daily services of Winchester Cathedral, which the choir sings seven times a week. Winchester’s Lay Clerkship is in many ways a perfect job, because it leaves me plenty of time to deal with the other side of my life – freelance singing. So, before wandering down to the Cathedral in the afternoon I may be doing various
bits of admin, practising singing (which yes, believe it or not, I do), or running the usual hum-drum errands of life. If I have a freelance project on then much of my time is taken up by thinking about or learning the music for it. For example, while I’ve been learning the music for this concert, I’ve also been memorising the final movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9,
and learning Bach’s Singet dem Herrn, both of which I’m performing in a concert at New Year’s. As well as this I’m trying to learn music for other projects in December, and generally trying to get ahead of schedule (which is unlike me) for the more busy times of the year! Outside of singing, and in an effort to become even more interesting at dinner parties, I’ve gotten into writing my own music-themed cryptic crossword clues. Singing is what I love, but part of me wishes I could be some kind of writer, and devising cryptic crossword clues sort of scratches the same itch!

3. If you could choose to perform any piece you have performed with Ex Cathedra again, what would it be, and why?

It’s a tricky question to answer really because there’s so much to choose from. Obviously, some of the bigger pieces stick out in my mind, for example Rachmaninoff’s Vespers which we performed in 2023. It was the first time I’d done the piece and was also the first Ex Cathedra project I did, and so I have lots of fond memories surrounding it.

Fortunately, Ex Cathedra are doing the Vespers again in July 2026 so that feels like a bit of a cheat answer, in which case I’ll say Jeffrey’s arrangement
of ‘Summer Holiday’, which we performed in the Summer Music by Candlelight concert series in 2024, and have performed again since. It would take too long to get into the specifics of why I like ‘Summer Holiday’ so much, but every time I perform it it’s impossible not to have fun, its light-heartedness and breezy mood are both infectious, and it sums up the feeling of ‘It’s summer, we’re all having a great time, let’s enjoy ourselves’.

4. What’s your musical guilty secret?

I suppose it’s not a guilty secret as such, but friends of mine will know that if I find something good to listen to, I’ll text it to them, often with a message containing words to the effect of: ‘You absolutely have to listen to this,’ followed by a rambling summation of why I like it, in minute detail. If I find
something I like, regardless of genre or provenance, I’m making a note of it. As such, my Spotify playlists are quite eclectic and currently feature things ranging from John McCormack singing Keep the Home Fires Burning, to the opening track of the soundtrack of the film The Searchers, to Evidently Chickentown by John Cooper Clarke, to Dy-Na-Mi-Tee by Ms. Dynamite. As I said, not so much a guilty secret, but I do sometimes think that if people knew I was listening to New Noise by Refused on my way to sing Gibbons’ Fauxbordons at Evensong, they’d just laugh. But it’s all music, and it’s all interesting.