James, Donald

After studying Music as a Choral scholar at Cambridge University, Donald James started his professional career as the Director of Music of the Edinburgh Academy and conductor of both the Edinburgh Symphony Orchestra and the City of Edinburgh Band. He was also the Director of Music of Palmerston Place Church, an important church in Edinburgh’s West End.

Mr. James then joined the BBC Radio’s Music Department in London as a producer and also conducted the New London Singers. He became Director of Music at St. Jude’s Church with a fine organ and a professional choir at his disposal. Subsequently as a lecturer, he joined the faculty of the University of Exeter and directed the Exeter University Singers, who won the Rose Bowl in the BBC International Competition, “Let the People Sing”. He was also Director of the University Opera Group and of the University Players, an ensemble of as many as fifteen players specializing in the music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was, at the same time, organist and choirmaster of the main church in Dawlish for seven years and the Director of Music in the main church at Crediton. As an examiner of the Associated Board and as an adjudicator at Music Festivals, he has visited cities throughout the United Kingdom as well as Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong, the countries of the Middle East, Malta, Germany and Canada where he adjudicated at the major Festivals in Winnepeg and Toronto. Mr. James is now freelancing as a composer, arranger, paleographer and conductor.

Mr. James is now feelancing as a composer, arranger, paleographer and conductor.