James Meldrum (1983) is currently studying for a Advanced Postgraduate Diploma with Barnaby Robson at the Royal College of Music. As well as being a scholar, he also holds a MBF Music Education Award, Countess of Munster Musical Trust Award, and the Wilkins-Mackerras Scholarship. Previously, James studied with Janet Hilton and Barnaby Robson as a Foundation Scholar at the Royal College of Music and graduated with a First Class BMus honours degree in the summer of 2006.

As an orchestral musician, James has played in the finest concert halls in the world with the leading conductors of the day. Currently, he is on trial for Principal Clarinet with deFilharmonie (Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Belgium) and freelances regularly with the Philharmonia Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and has just been awarded a place on the prestigious London Symphony Orchestra Academy. James also holds the position of Principal Clarinet with the Dutch International Orchestra and Ensemble Academy, Young Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, Britten-Pears Orchestra, Capital Philharmonic, Charities Philharmonia and the Royal College of Music’s Symphony Orchestra. James was previously a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

James is an active chamber musician and is a founding member of the Rigotti Ensemble which has toured extensively, performing classical and modern repertoire along with pianists Alasdair Beatson, Catherine Millege and Helen Crayford. In 2006, the ensemble was invited to join the prestigious Countess of Munster Recital Scheme. He also works closely with the Harpham String Quartet and in 2005 performed with the world renowned Medici Quartet at LSO St. Lukes, London. He has performed all the major clarinet quintets and in 2005 was asked to perform Herbert Howells’ ‘Rhapsodic Quintet’ by Paul Spicer (leading expert, author and composer) in an inaugural concert celebrating the opening of the new catalogue containing Howells’ works. In 2003, James collaborated with La Scala Milan’s principal Soprano, Susan Daniel and the Assistant Musical Director, Bruno Nicoli for performances of Schubert’s, ‘The Shepherd on the Rock’ in the Barrandov Opera House.

With larger scale chamber groups, James has performed much of the repertoire with the RCM wind Ensemble, National Youth Orchestra Wind Ensemble, Dutch International Ensemble Academy and the Britten Pears Chamber Groups with the Ulysses Ensemble. In 2005, James performed Mauricio Kagel’s ‘Windrose’ and ‘Orchestrion Straat’ for Salon Orchestra to great critical acclaim under the guidance of Kagel himself and more recently has worked with Sofia Gubaidulina in Amsterdam.

James is passionate about performing groundbreaking works and has recently been heavily influenced by Helmut Lachenmann, of who he has worked closely with throughout 2006. This culminated in performances of Lachenmann’s epic work for Clarinet/Bass Clarinet, Cello (Aoife Nic Athlaoich) and Piano (Hiroaki Takenouchi) ‘Allegro Sostenuto’ in the Transcendent festival in association with the BBC, Arditti Quartet and London Sinfonietta.

James has performed in the Cheltenham, Perth, Edinburgh, Halifax, Thaxted, City of London, Aldburgh and Dorset Festivals, BBC proms and Snape Proms and has performed live on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Suffolk, BBC Television and International Radio and Television with conductors including Andrew Litton, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Simon Rattle, Bernhard Haitink, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Sir Rodger Norrington to name a few.

Recently, James has been invited to perform as an artist for the MBF’s young artist programme and has had the honour of performing for the Tillet Trust’s recital programme along with the Harpham Quartet.