Brian James

Brian James is Second Oboe and Solo English Horn with Symphony Nova Scotia, a position he has held since 2005. Before his appointment in Halifax, Brian performed regularly as Principal Oboe with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, Opera Lyra Ottawa, and the Windsor Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with the Toronto, Buffalo, Virginia Symphony Orchestras and Canadian Opera Company Orchestra. Brian has recorded extensively with Baroque music specialist Kevin Mallon and the Juno Award-nominated ensemble, the Toronto Chamber Orchestra, as well as the Ontario based woodwind octet, ‘The Festival Winds’ for Naxos and CBC, respectively. Brian has appeared many times as a concerto soloist with Symphony Nova Scotia and in 2013 he premiered J.S. Bach’s Oboe d’amore Concerto in A Major with the orchestra.

Brian is currently the instructor of oboe at the Fountain School of the Performing Arts at Dalhousie University and has previously held teaching positions at Wilfrid Laurier University and Acadia University. He has been an active member on the Board of Directors of Symphony Nova Scotia and is a former Chair of the orchestra’s Players’ Association.

Brian is originally from Washington, D.C. and comes from a large family of professional musicians. He holds degrees from the Florida State University School of Music and the Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Brian is an avid kayaker and motorcyclist and lives on St. Margaret’s Bay with his wife, Michelle (a public school music teacher and violinist) and their two daughters, Mallory and Elora.