Stephen James – Biographical Information
Stephen James has performed for the Tanglewood Music Center Chamber Series, the WICN Radio concert series at Mechanics Hall (Worcester, MA), Alea III, the Omnibus Series at Boston University, the American Repertory Theater, the Essex Chamber Music Players, and on many other concert series in New England. He holds a masters degree in piano from Boston University, where he studied with Luis Batlle and performed the Stravinsky Symphony in Three Movements with the Boston University Symphony Orchestra, and a bachelors degree in music from Amherst College, where he studied piano with Beveridge Webster, Vincent Marlotti and Robert Miller, and performed the Schumann and Stravinsky piano concertos with orchestra.
He is a composer as well as a pianist, and completed his doctoral degree in composition at Boston University, where he received the graduate composition prize in 1984, the Malloy Miller Composition Award in 1986, and an award for continuing musical excellence in 1987. Mr. James was a Crofts Fellow in Composition at the Tanglewood Music Center and a member of the Center for Compositional Study at the Aspen Music Festival. Performances of his works include premieres by the the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston and the Atlantic Brass Quintet, commissions from the Washington Music Ensemble and the Newburyport Choral Society, and performances by the Society for New Music (Syracuse, NY) and the Fellows of the Music Center at Tanglewood. He currently teaches music theory and piano performance at Worcester State University, and has also taught at Boston University, the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, Anna Maria College and Bridgewater State University.