Taking joy in being a conductor and educator, James is the assistant director of the University of Texas New Music Ensemble, having worked with and conducted music by composers such as Andy Akiho, Jennifer Higdon, and Viet Cuong. James was also the founder and director of the Clear Lake Summer Orchestra program which ran from 2011 - 2017. In the summers, James arranges music and helps coordinate the Sizzling Strings Summer Orchestra camp for middle school and high school students. James is also a sight-singing and music history teacher, sharing his enthusiasm regarding the different approaches to learning and perceiving music.
James is a composer-songwriter and the founder of Less Than <10 Music. James’ music is characterized by sensitivity to evolving tone color, developing expressive motivic lines, and practices involving interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-culture styles. His music often involves his own poetry set to singer/songwriter type melodies supported by textures influenced by contemporary concert music practices. With the subject matter of his music often reflecting on attacks on heritage, race, and sexual orientation, James writes primarily to inspire empathy and hope through means of intimate, engaging sound worlds and visceral poetry. James’ music has been performed in Alice Tully Hall in New York, Italy, Toronto, and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. James has received honors from the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Awards and was a featured artists for The Church of the Friendly Ghost in their 2019-2020 artists series based in Austin, TX. He is currently on faculty at Austin Community College as a Professor of Composition and Theory.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, James started the collective “Less Than <10 Music” made up of a core of 9 musicians spread across the US to put on livestream concerts to raise funds, hope, and awareness to struggling artists. Less Than <10 premieres new works and performs music by artists such as Andy Akiho, Viet Cuong, and Jason Treuting as well as classical repertoire. Funds raised from each concert go to non-profits in Austin, TX in order to support artists in need. James is a gigging musician in the Austin classical and indie scene, performing with groups such as folk band Middle Sattre, variety ensemble Less Than 10, and his own singer-songwriter act. He is in the final stages of editing his debut indie-classical album “Maru” at Red Star Mule Barn.
