His “flair and commitment which makes for strong communication with his audience” (Peter Grahame Woolf) attracted outstanding critical praise for James’s Wigmore Hall debut in early 2009, and his Purcell Room debut the previous year prompted the Strad magazine to write “imposing: he knows how to draw an audience in” and the Times: “no doubting the strength of feeling”. Conductor, Benjamin Zander commented “a great cellist, moreover a great musician” James has given concerts throughout Europe, in India, Korea and the USA. He has performed as soloist at all the major UK venues including the Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall and the Bridgewater Hall, and at many international festivals.

James’s music interests also include Indian music. His cello and tabla duo with tabla master, Sankar Prosad Chowdhury, has performed at many major festivals in the UK. He has performed as soloist with the London Sitar Ensemble at the Purcell Room in London, and with tabla master Kousic Sen. His interest in Indian music began during a six-month teaching visit to Calcutta in 1998 and was he was later trained at the Ali Akbar School of Indian Classical Music in Basel under sarod maestro, Ken Zuckerman.

James is a laureate of numerous awards including the 2003 Royal Philharmonic Society Julius Isserlis scholarship and the Muriel Taylor Cello Scholarship. He has received prizes and awards from the English Speaking Union, the Swiss Government, the Myra Hess Trust, the Tillett Trust, the Denne Gilkes trust, the Bromsgrove International Competition, the Countess of Munster Trust, the Hattorti Foundation, the Haverhill Soloists Competition, the Martin Music Trust and the Sir John Barbirolli Cello Competition.

In 2006, James received the Soloist Diploma with distiction from the Musikhochschule Basel where he studied with Thomas Demenga. Previously, James studied with Hannah Roberts at the Royal Northern College of Music, from where he graduated in 2002 with a first class degree and two diplomas. He has also benefited from several masterclasses, notably at the London Masterclasses with Ralph Kirshbaum, and the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove where he has studied with Steven Isserlis, Ralph Kirshbaum, Miklos Perenyi and Boris Pergamenschikow. James is a regular at the Prussia Cove masterclasses in Spring and also the Open Chamber Music in September. Other professors from whom he has had studied with include Pieter Wispelwey, Robert Cohen and David Geringas.

James’s arrangements for eight celli and various other combinations have been performed at festivals throughout the world.

If he finds time, James enjoys high-mountain climbing (he has climbed Mont Blanc, Monta Rosa and trekked the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal).