James Burton

Born in London, James Burton has conducted many of the UK’s leading ensembles including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Hallé, the Orchestra and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment, Tenebrae, the BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Singers. In recent seasons he has conducted the Ulster Orchestra, the Aalborg Symphony, Orquestra Sinfónica Nacional of Mexico, the Vermont Symphony, and the Handel and Haydn Society. Since 2017 James has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra Choral Director and Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and he has conducted many performances at Symphony Hall and at Tanglewood with the BSO and the TFC. He has been a frequent guest conductor with the Boston Pops. James has conducted at English National Opera, English Touring Opera and Garsington Opera, and earlier in his career he served as assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera and Opera national de Paris. Future engagements include the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Connecticut Early Music Festival, and Ex Cathedra. 

With a particularly strong background in choral/orchestral repertoire, James’ previous appointments have included serving as Choral Director at the Hallé Orchestra, and he won the Gramophone Choral Award in 2009. A lifelong and passionate advocate for young musicians, James has also served as Director of Orchestral Activities at Boston University, Music Director of Schola Cantorum of Oxford, and he founded the Boston Symphony Children’s Choir.

An active composer, James’ works have been performed by leading choral groups including the King’s Singers, The Sixteen, and the choirs of New College Oxford and St John’s College Cambridge, as well as orchestras including the Boston Pops and the City of Birmingham Symphony. His The Lost Words was premiered by the BSO at Tanglewood and has been performed by the Royal National Scottish Orchestra and featured at the BBC Proms. Next season he will complete a new mass setting which will premier on Easter Day in Westminster Abbey. His composition portfolio is published by Edition Peters.

James grew up in a musical family and began his formal musical training as a chorister in the Choir of Westminster Abbey, later studying music at Cambridge University where he was a choral scholar at St. John’s College. He holds a Master’s in Orchestral Conducting from the Peabody Institute where he studied with Frederik Prausnitz and Gustav Meier. Away from his life in music James has a busy family life, and he is an avid sports fan especially of cricket, and he lived for some years close by to Needham’s historic Cricket Field. He is happy to answer any questions about this once-popular New England sport in the intermission!