James Ross has conducted more than 1,000 works in 19 countries throughout Europe, North America, Asia and Africa, including at the Royal Festival Hall, Westminster Abbey for Queen Elizabeth II and Birmingham’s Symphony Hall. Training first as a violinist, he studied at Southbank American International School in London, Harrow School and Christ Church, Oxford, studying history then a master’s degree and a D.Phil. on French Opera, Politics and the Press awarded the Sir Donald Tovey Prize, and conducting Christ Church Festival Orchestra and Oxford University Sinfonietta.
A BBC Conducting Competition finalist, he has conducted most of the symphonic and choral repertoire, operas by Bizet, Britten, Janáček, Mozart, Verdi and Wagner, worked with singers including Sir Thomas Allen, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Olga Borodina and Danielle de Niese, led numerous contemporary music premières including staged productions for the Center for Contemporary Opera in New York and Milan, raised over £1 million in concerts for charities, including with English National Ballet.
During the COVID-19 Pandemic, James Ross has produced more than 30 albums for Ulysses Arts, the record label and classical music consultancy he directs, and conducted a televised concert broadcast with the Büyükada Ensemble’s musicians from Turkey, Germany and the UK in Istanbul.
