James Lockhart

James Lockhart was born in Edinburgh in October 1930 and studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and at the University of Edinburgh. He completed his postgraduate work at the Vienna Music Academy and the Salzburg Mozarteum. He made his early career as a répétiteur and assistant conductor at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden from 1962 to 1968, working from the piano in the coaching of soloists and ensemble preparation for the standard operatic repertoire.

His later career divided between conducting — he was music director of Welsh National Opera from 1968 to 1973 and of the Kassel State Theatre in Germany from 1973 to 1980, and worked extensively as a guest opera conductor across the German houses — and keyboard work as a coach and accompanist. He partnered Heather Harper, Janet Baker and other British singers in concert recital and broadcast performance, and held a long teaching position at the Royal College of Music in London from 1992 onwards as head of opera, in which his daily work was substantially at the piano coaching young singers. He returned to conducting major productions periodically through his later years.

Lockhart died in Surrey in March 2024. Music Preserved’s archive includes a range of his coaching, accompaniment and operatic work from the post-war decades.