Artistic Director Designate
James Burton is an internationally renowned conductor, composer and passionate advocate of singing, widely recognised for his dynamic leadership of choirs and orchestras on both sides of the Atlantic. He joins Ex Cathedra as Artistic Director Designate in Spring 2026 and will become Artistic Director when Jeffrey Skidmore retires in Autumn 2027.
James Burton will bring his experience of conducting leading British and international choirs and orchestras, including the BBC Singers, Tenebrae, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Handel and Haydn Society, Ulster Orchestra, the Hallé, Aalborg Symphony and Mexico’s National Symphony Orchestra.
He has recently spent eight seasons as Choral Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and four years as Director of Orchestral Activities at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts. He was deeply involved in the musical life of New England, appearing as guest conductor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Handel and Haydn Society, the Boston Pops, the Vermont Symphony, the Connecticut Early Music Festival, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, as well as conducting the Boston Symphony’s choirs for many collaborations which included recording Shostakovich’s symphonies on Deutsche Grammophon. James was Director of Orchestral Activities at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, leading the orchestral programme and teaching post-graduate orchestral conducting. In spring 2026, he returns to conduct the Handel and Haydn Society and a Handel project at the New England Conservatory.
A former head chorister of Westminster Abbey, James was a choral scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge and a professional singer before studying orchestral conducting with Frederik Prausnitz at the Peabody Conservatory.
Other orchestral collaborations have included conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Hallé, the Orchestra of Opera North and the BBC Concert Orchestra. He returns to work with the Ulster Orchestra in December 2026. He has worked with English National Opera, English Touring Opera and Garsington Opera, where he received the 2008 Leonard Ingrams Award.
Past leadership roles have included serving as Choral Director of the Hallé, where his work culminated in the 2009 Gramophone Choral Award (The Dream of Gerontius), and Music Director of the St. Endellion Easter Festival.
A passionate advocate for young musicians, James directed Schola Cantorum of Oxford, creating its conducting scholarship in 2011. He founded the Hallé Youth Choir in 2003 and the Boston Symphony Children’s Choir in 2018. He has been a regular faculty member at the Prague Summer Nights Festival and has collaborated with Genesis Sixteen, NYCGB and the National Youth Choir of Japan.
James’ growing portfolio of compositions is published by Edition Peters. The Lost Words (2019) was co-commissioned by the Hallé and the Boston Symphony, and has been performed at Tanglewood, the BBC Proms, and by the RSNO. James’ output includes arrangements for the Boston Pops, orchestrations for American folk legend Arlo Guthrie, and choral works which have been widely performed, broadcast and recorded by groups including the BBC Singers, The Sixteen, Voces8, the Choir of New College Oxford and the King’s Singers.