James Rhodes

Bookings: available for concert touring / festivals

Often described as the “Jamie Oliver" of classical music, JAMES RHODES is "a classical pianist with a rock-star attitude”.

James makes it his mission to seek out new audiences for classical music through his choice of venues and performance style. In 2009 he was the first-ever classical soloist to perform at the Roundhouse in Camden and since then has in non-traditional classical music houses such as the 100 Club, Proud Galleries and the Tabernacle, Notting Hill.  Rhodes has also played at Blenheim Palace and the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Hall. In Spring 2009 he was invited as a special guest performer for the Classical Brit Award nominations ceremony.

2010 saw James perform at the Holders Festival in Barbados, the E4 Udderbelly (Southbank), Cheltenham Music Festival and Latitude Festival where was the first solo classical musician to play core-classical piano repertoire at the festival.

In March 2010, he became the first classical pianist to be signed to the predominantly rock-music label Warner Bros. Records. His first album with Warner, Bullets and Lullabies, was released in December 2010 and went straight to No 1 on iTunes' classical download chart. This follows his debut album Razor Blades Little Pills and Big Pianos which reached number one on iTunes in May 2009 and is second CD Now would all Freudians please stand aside which are both available on the award-winning independent classical label Signum Classics.

In October 2010, James was featured in the BBC Four documentary Chopin: The Women Behind the Music and is currently presenting and performing in his very own television series James Rhodes: Piano Man on Sky Arts 2.

In 2011, James has performed at the Ambassadors Theatre (West End, London), Cheltenham Music Festival, Lichfield Festival and Love Arts Leeds Festival. He headlined the Melbourne International Festival in October which was followed by an Australian tour. He returns to the Queen Elizabeth Hall (London) in November and will record his new live album in Brighton at The Old Market this December.

Rhodes dispenses with the ‘straitjacket’ approach to classical music. On stage he interacts with his audience, sharing his thoughts on the music and composers. By using his trademark stand-up style, James brings a touch of rock n roll to each performance.

"The joy of James Rhodes is the way he reaches out to young, unconverted audiences by throwing them into classical music’s deep end — Beethoven, Bach — with performances of such natural ease and brilliance that no one can resist." Geoff Brown, The Times