James Ross

Biography

Conductor James Ross won scholarships to Harrow School in London and to Christ Church at Oxford University. There he studied history, took a master's degree in music and a doctorate on French opera under Roger Parker, winning the Sir Donald Tovey Prize. He was a finalist in the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra's 1998 Conducting Competition and since then has conducted in Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Serbia, Spain, Sri Lanka and the USA. He is the Music Director of St Albans Symphony Orchestra, Oxford’s Christ Church Festival Orchestra, The Oxford Opera Company, Sidcup Symphony Orchestra, Haslemere Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Welwyn Garden City Orchestra and Chorus, the Royal College of Paediatrics Orchestra and Chorus. Previous positions include conductor of Oxford University Sinfonietta. He has performed in leading UK concert halls, including Symphony Hall, Birmingham, St. John's Smith Square, London, and the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford.

He has conducted over 700 works, ranging from the Baroque, most of the standard symphonic and choral repertoire, to contemporary music by Boulez, Ligeti, Stockhausen and many more; accompanying includes Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with Sir Thomas Allen, Elgar 'Cello Concerto, Brahms Double Concerto and Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations with Guy Johnston, and concerts with members of The National Opera Studio; major 20th-Century works include Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring; Schoenberg, Pierrot Lunaire; Janácek, Sinfonietta and Bartók, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. He has also conducted much specialist French music and has a strong interest in contemporary music. Numerous first performances including New Music Days with Roxanna Panufnik, Paul Patterson and members of the City of London Sinfonia, supported by the Arts Council.

In 1996 he was an assistant for Bernard Haitink’s Don Carlos recording with The Royal Opera, London. His teachers have included Tsung Yeh (USA / Hong Kong), Zdenek Bilek (Czech Republic), Victor Feldbrill (Canada), Ernst Schelle (Switzerland) and Alan Hazeldine (UK); he has also received advice from Bernard Haitink, Paul Daniel, Peter Donohoe, Sir David Willcocks and Sir Charles Mackerras. He is a frequent guest speaker, including at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France; he has also taught at Oxford University and contributed to Music and Letters (Vincent d'Indy's Fervaal, 2003), Opera, English Historical Review, Musical Times and is a co-author of Vincent d'Indy et son temps and French Music Since Berlioz, published in 2006. In the last ten years, he has helped raise over £100,000 through concert-giving for charities including Whizz-Kidz, Addaction, Rethink, The Fund for Epilepsy, NSPCC, Response International, UNICEF, Sunera Foundation of Sri Lanka and Oxfam. He is a member of the Performers and Composers Section of the Incorporated Society of Musicians (UK), of the Conductors Guild (USA) and League of American Orchestras.

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