James Anest

James Anest grew up farming and ranching in a very small town in Western Nebraska. Although he played trumpet in his high school band, sang in both the church and school choir, and danced with a Greek folk ensemble, James did not entertain the notion of a career in the performing arts. In his senior year of high school, Anest was chosen to sing the bass solos of Handel's Messiah at his church; he didn't even know how to read music at the time and had to learn the music by studying a recording. His subsequent performance amazed everyone and caught the attention of a voice teacher who arranged for a music scholarship to Mount St. Mary's College in Southern California where James made history as the first male student to ever live on the formerly all female campus. Despite the fact that prior to this Anest had taken only a handful of vocal lessons, the power and beauty of his raw untrained voice astounded and inspired his teachers and after college propelled him initially to a career on the operatic stage. Anest has performed baritone roles in Carmen, The Magic Flute, La Boheme, The Beggars Opera, Don Giovanni, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Die Fledermaus and Amahl and the Night Visitors. James' first musical theatre role was Emile De Becque in Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific opposite Broadway star Stephanie Block. His rendition of "This Nearly Was Mine" so impressed the producers that he was cast in the show, despite being 20 years too young for the role. Since he has played El Gallo in The Fantasticks, Danilo in The Merry Widow, Lancelot in Camelot, Lord Byron in How Do I Love Thee, Petrovich in Crime and Punishment, in addition to scoring a major triumph as Gaston in Disney's stage version of Beauty and the Beast and as the pirate king in Joseph Papp's adaptation of The Pirates of Penzance. Anest has also played to great acclaim the non singing roles of Max in Lend Me A Tenor and Petruchio in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. James has also appeared on the MTV series Next. 2006 saw the release of James' first classical CD, My November Guest, a world premiere recording of art songs set to the poetry of Lord Byron, Yeats, Browning and other romantic poets, written specifically for James' voice by composer Jon Naples. He can also be heard on another recent world premiere recording of the score to Rodgers and Hart's 1928 musical comedy "Present Arms". In his spare time, James enjoys basketball, swimming, water skiing and, as befitting a man who has been called "the Errol Flynn of Opera", fencing.