James Doing began his career after joining the Netherlands Opera Studio in Amsterdam which launched an international career in opera. Mr. Doing has sung over 70 operatic roles in Paris, Nice, London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Antwerp, Turin, Stuttgart, Doha (Qatar), New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Santa Fe, Cleveland, Cooperstown (Glimmerglass), Milwaukee, Madison and elsewhere. His operatic roles range from Telemaco in Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse (Netherlands Opera and Brooklyn Academy of Music) to his critically acclaimed portrayal of Roderick Usher in Philip Glass's The Fall of the House of Usher in the Stuttgarter Hofkonzerte, and Gorlaeus in the world premiere and subsequent release on Nonesuch of Louis Andriessen's De Materie. As a Mozart specialist his roles include Tamino, Belmonte, Don Ottavio, Ferrando, Oebalus, Marzio, Bastien and the comedic Pedrillo, Basilio and Vogelsang.
Mr. Doing’s concert career (>80 orchestral parts) was launched after winning the Erna Spoorenberg International Oratorio Vocalists Competition in Holland in 1991. As an internationally renowned interpreter of J. S. Bach, James Doing has sung over 135 performances of Matthäus and Johannes Passion and the Weihnachtsoratorium in Europe, Japan and North America, including many performances in Amsterdam’s famed Concertgebouw and Stateside with The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Peoria and Kalamazoo Bach Festivals, Choral Society of Durham and the Universities of Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. In March 2005 he performed Bach's Magnificat and Easter Oratorio with Chicago's Music of the Baroque and in March 2006, his solo tenor performance in the first ever Dutch language Matthew Passion was released by Universal Music/Deutsche Grammophon. He has performed Messiah around the world including Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and in Tokyo and Osaka, and is the tenor soloist on the world premiere recording of Beethoven’s Kantate auf die Erhebung Leopolds II zur Kaiserswurde with the Krakow Symphony Orchestra. 2011 and 2012 bring sixteen Passions throughout Holland including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and Messiah and Weihnachtsoratorium in Japan.
James Doing’s mastery of the German language led to recording contracts in the early 1990’s with Evangeliums Rundfunk with whom he recorded a solo Gospel album, three albums of German hymns and the role of Jesus in a musical Adam und Co. which subsequently went on tour throughout Western and the former Eastern Germany. This affinity for the German language also led to his engagement at Theaterhaus Stuttgart in 1997 singing four critically acclaimed performances of Schubert’s epic song cycle Winterreise (in the orchestration by Hans Zender), to sold out audiences.
As a performer, James Doing has been universally praised for his vocal agility, clear timbre, effortless and stylish interpretation, as well as his command of languages and fine dramatic and comedic acting. He has received notice as "admirable" The New York Times, "refined lyric tenor" Opera News, "strong and musical voice" Le Figaro, "vocally first rate" Opern Welt, "great vocal presence" Opernglas, "serene, sweeping, smooth voice" Stuttgarter Zeitung, "absolutely perfect" Main-Echo, and, "deeply moving…never failed our expectations…more than impressive" The Jerusalem Post.
Conductors with whom James Doing has worked as a soloist include Christian Badea, Michel Corboz, John Crosby, Dennis Russell Davies, John DeMain, Jane Glover, Hartmut Haenchen, René Jacobs, Graeme Jenkins, Bernhard Kontarsky, Ton Koopman, Henry Lewis, Stephen Lord, George Manahan, Ingo Metzmacher, Kenneth Montgomery, Arnold Østman, David Parry, Jean-Paul Pénin, Louis Salemno, Vassily Sinaisky, Hans Vonk and Edo de Waart. Among the many stage directors James Doing has worked as a soloist include Christopher and David Alden, Colin Graham, Alfred Kirchner, Harry Kupfer, Elisha Moshinsky, Herbert Neugebauer, Vittorio Patané, David Pountney and Robert Wilson.
Since 1994, James Doing has collaborated with the noted voice scientist Donald Miller on the application of visual feedback from real-time spectrum analysis in the instruction of voice. This collaboration has led to co-authorship of two articles and invitations from around the country to lecture on resonance and utilization of the software program VoceVista (VoceVista.com) including an April, 2012 "Wired" Lecture and Master Class at Northwestern University.
Mr. Doing currently bases his singing and teaching careers out of Madison, WI where he is Professor of Voice at University of Wisconsin’s School of Music. Current and former students serve on the faculty at University of Colorado-Boulder, have won the Wisconsin, Minnesota and Oregon MET Auditions and sung with Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, Opéra National de Paris (Bastille), Opéra de Nice, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Seattle Opera, other regional opera companies and in the young artist programs of Santa Fe, San Francisco (Merola), Lyric Opera of Chicago, Wolf Trap, Minnesota, Milwaukee (Florentine), Sarasota, Orlando, Portland, Utah, Central City and Glimmerglass. |