Spinto-soprano Gal James has established herself in recent years on the European opera and concert stages as an artist of unusual sensitivity and great vocal beauty.

Operatic highlights include Rusalka at Semperoper Dresden, Rachel/La Juive at Opera Vlaanderen, Arabella for Theater St. Gallen and Mimi at the Palau de les Arts Valencia, under Riccardo Chailly (released on DVD), Mimi/La Bohème at Opera Vlaanderen and Rusalka at Vienna State Opera.

Gal James joined the ensemble of Oper Leipzig (season 2016/2017), appearing as Contessa/Le Nozze di Figaro, Marguerite/Faust, Liù/Turandot, and giving role debuts as Freia/Das Rheingold, Gutrune/Götterdämmerung and Agathe in Der Freischütz.

In 2017/18, she has successfully performed her first Elisabetta in a new production of Don Carlo, and Rusalka next to her roles from last season. Other highlights for this season included Agathe at the Grafenegg Festspiele and Semperoper Dresden, the title role in Goldschmidt’s Beatrice Cenci at the Bregenzer Festspiele and Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder with La Verdi in Milan.

A former ensemble member of Oper Graz, her roles for this house have included Jenufa, Rusalka, Manon Lescaut, Eva/Die Meistersinger von Nūrnberg, Contessa/Le Nozze di Figaro, Donna Anna/Don Giovanni, Marguerite/Faust, Desdemona/Otello, Chrysothemis/Elektra, Liù/Turandot, Michaela/Carmen, Marietta/Die tote Stadt and Elsa/Lohengrin. 

On the concert platform, Gal James has performed Mendelssohn’s Elias with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder with the Bochumer Symphoniker, the Oslo Philharmonic and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42 with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, a selection of Strauss songs with the Grazer Philharmonisches Orchester at the Wiener Musikverein, Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony and Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Bochumer Symphoniker, Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Vasily Petrenko (both released on CD).

In her home country, she has appeared with the Israeli Chamber Orchestra, the Israeli Philharmonic Singer’s Chorus, at the Jerusalem Music Center, the Abu-Gosh Festival and with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.

Conductors and directors she has worked with include Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Chailly, Seiji Ozawa, Neeme Järvi, Ulf Schirmer, Steven Sloane, Julien Salemkour, Johannes Fritzsch, Ion Marin, Dan Ettinger, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Tomas Netopil, Hervé Niquet, Michael Boder, Stefan Herheim, Peter Konwitschny and Robert Carsen.

Ms James has won several awards, including third prize at the 2006 Belvedere Competition in Vienna, first prize in the 2005 Aviv Vocal competition, first prize at the Voice Competition of the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel-Aviv University, her alma mater. After graduating as a cello player, she studied voice, coached by Prof. Mira Zakai. She is a former member of the opera studio of the Staatsoper Berlin and continues to study with Patricia McCaffrey and Abbie Furmansky.