James Ross (conductor)

James Ross is a British conductor and author.

Career
Ross studied at Harrow School, and later at Christ Church, Oxford from where he received an MA in Modern History (1993), an MSt in Music (1994), and a DPhil in French opera (1998) awarded the Donald Tovey Prize. He studied with conductors including Sir Charles Mackerras, Ernst Schelle, Victor Feldbrill and Alan Hazeldine, and was a finalist in the 1998 BBC Philharmonic Conducting Competition.

Since graduating he has conducted over 1,000 works in nineteen countries throughout Western and Eastern Europe, North America, Africa and Asia, and in Westminster Abbey and leading UK concert halls including the Royal Festival Hall and St. John's, Smith Square, London, Symphony Hall, Birmingham and the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, where he performed Beethoven's 9th Symphony for the 350th anniversary in 2014. In 2013 he gave the first orchestral concert at Sri Lanka's new national performing arts venue, the Nelum Pokuna Theatre, Colombo, with the Commonwealth Festival Orchestra. He is music director of the Oxford Opera Company, the Christ Church Festival Orchestra, and from 2006 the Sidcup Symphony Orchestra. Previous positions include with Oxford University Sinfonietta and St Albans Symphony Orchestra. In 2021, he conducted the Ankara City Philharmonic Orchestra (Ankara Kent Filarmoni Orkestrası)'s first concert, held at Ankara's new Presidential Symphony Orchestra Hall. His album of previously unrecorded works by Vaughan Williams for Shakespeare plays with Kent Sinfonia releases with Albion Records in autumn 2024.

Ross has conducted numerous first performances of new works, including by composers such as Tunde Jegede, Philip Sheppard and Geoffrey Álvarez, at London's Saatchi Gallery, and for Queen Elizabeth II on Commonwealth Day at Westminster Abbey. In June 2016 he gave the first performance of the opera Love Hurts, composed by Nicola Moro with libretto by Lisa Hilton, at Milan's Piccolo Teatro. Ross is also a director of global classical music production company and consultancy Ulysses Arts.

Publications
James Ross has co-written several books and articles on music, including Music in the French Salon, French Music Since Berlioz, Vincent d'Indy l'interprète, and Messidor: Republican Patriotism and the French Revolutionary Tradition in Third Republic Opera. His work has also been published in journals including The English Historical Review, Opera, The Musical Times and Music & Letters.