James Judd

British born James Judd came to international attention as the Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra at the invitation of Lorin Maazel. Four years later Claudio Abbado appointed him Associate Music Director of the European Community Youth Orchestra. Since then he has led the Berlin Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestras; he has conducted in the great concert halls of Europe, including Salzburg’s Mozarteum and Vienna’s Musikverein; and made guest appearances with the Vienna Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Prague Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Monte Carlo Symphony, the Brussels Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, Japan’s NHK Orchestra and the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg. He has conducted the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and the English Chamber Orchestra. He was co-founder of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, which he led on tours throughout the United States, the Far East and Europe. In North America he is a frequent guest conductor with the orchestras of St. Louis, Montreal, Cincinnatti, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Seattle, Indianapolis, Utah, Vancouver and Ottawa.

James Judd’s many directorships include 8 years with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and 16 years with the Florida Philharmonic, principal guest conductorships with the Asian Youth Orchestra, France’s Orchestre National de Lille, the Israel Symphony, New York’s Little Orchestra Society, the Slovak Philharmonic and is currently Music Director of Korea’s Daejeon Philharmonic. In addition to his international conducting career, James Judd has led the orchestras of the Juilliard School, Curtis Institute, Manhattan School of Music, London’s Guildhall School and Trinity College, Aspen Music Festival and the national youth orchestras of Australia and New Zealand, and regularly directs the AYO music camp in Adelaide. Inspired by Venezuela’s El Sistema, he founded the Miami Music Project in Florida, providing education, instruction and performance opportunities for hundreds of children from diverse and underserved communities. His extensive discography of works by Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Beethoven, Leonard Bernstein, Copland, Gershwin and Mahler on the Naxos, Decca, EMI, Gramola and Philips labels include numerous recordings with the Adelaide Symphony, notably the works of Peter Sculthorpe.