James Gower-Smith, Live Events Team

In James's first Music lecture at the University of Manchester, 'Encore' performed Come Fly With Me as a promotion for the university's barbershop chorus and he knew instantly he had to be involved. Over the next year, he became obsessed, going on to form Tagline with Ben Ferguson, Rob Foot and Christopher Langworthy, and compete with Hallmark Of Harmony in the 2012 National Chorus Contest. 

In the years that have followed, he has been immensely fortunate to be part of numerous medal-winning performances with Hallmark as well as winning a gold medal in the 2015 BABS Quartet Contest and a silver medal in the 2018 International Youth Quartet Contest with Tagline. In addition to this competition success, Tagline have recorded an album, Let's Start Tomorrow Tonight, an EP, History, and a music video. They have also appeared on Britain's Got More Talent and Don't Hate The Playaz on ITV2 and performed across the country. 

James is an actor, singer and clarinettist. It was through singing barbershop that he discovered his love of both singing and acting through song. This, combined with a long-held love of musical theatre scores, led to him taking to the stage as Tony in the Bishopsgate Institute's production of West Side Story in 2018. Whilst rehearsing the show he realised that performing was something he could no longer pursue as a hobby only. Subsequently, in 2019 he began training to become a professional actor at the London School of Musical Theatre.

He feels extremely lucky to be a half of the BABS Live presenting team, and has relished the opportunity to express his immense gratitude and give something back to an organisation and community that has given him so much.