Biography

James Allbritten's work has been praised by the New York Wagner Society, Opera News, the Cultural Voice of North Carolina (CVNC), and Opera Lively. He has been fortunate in his career to have worked with some of the greatest names in opera, including Boris Goldovsky, Brian Balkwill, James Lucas, Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, Viginia Zeani, Giorgio Tozzi, and Margaret Harshaw. 

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Allbritten is originally from Louisville, KY, and began his operatic career with Kentucky Opera. While a student in Louisville, he was invited to participate as one of the youngest artists in the San Antonio Festival, where he was apprenticed to Boris Goldovsky. He obtained his Master of Music degree and continued doctoral studies  in Choral Conducting from Indiana University under Jan Harrington, Robert Porco, and Thomas Dunn. While there, he also worked with Glyndebourne Festival Opera conductor Bryan Balkwill, and MET stage directors Hans Busch and James Lucas. 

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He moved to North Carolina in 1993 to join the faculty of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) where his duties included Artistic Director of the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute, and conductor of the Cantata Singers and the UNCSA Symphony Orchestra. He spent four seasons as Music Director for UNCSA’s Illuminations Festival on the Outer Banks, and led the UNCSA Festival Orchestra at Côte Vermeille and for the Flâneries Musicales d'été de Reims in France. 

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He has been conductor of Winston Salem Symphony Chorale (1995-2001) and Principal Conductor for Opera Theatre of the Rockies Vocal Arts Festival (since 2000). He also spent three seasons as a young artist with The Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

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Allbritten returned to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts as the Music Director of the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute and conductor of the Cantata Singers. In his nearly 30 years at UNCSA, he has been the conductor of the Cantata Singers, founding artistic director of the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute, and served as the musical director of the UNCSA Symphony Orchestra. He led over 300 performances for the school across North Carolina. In 2013, he was the recipient of an Excellence in Teaching Award for the third time, and in the same year, he was honored by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts at UNCSA as a "class act: one who employs best practices in arts education." UNCSA established a $500,000 endowed professorship, the "James Allbritten Distinguished Visiting Artist Professorship," for the Fletcher Opera Institute ensuring the artistic legacy of the Institute in perpetuity.

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He has led performances of works from Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Lo frate ‘nnamorato through Rorem’s Our Town and the opera house premiere of Adam Guettel's The Light in the Piazza. He has also led performances for Opera Theatre of the Rockies, including the award-winning production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Opera Carolina, the Winston-Salem Symphony, the Mozart Club of Winston-Salem, Piedmont Chamber Singers, and the Carolina Chamber Orchestra.