James Judd

The British conductor JAMES JUDD is internationally acclaimed for his remarkably diverse, unique musicianship and charismatic stage presence. His name came to international attention as Assistant Conductor to Lorin Maazel at the Cleveland Orchestra. Four years later Claudio Abbado appointed him Associate Music Director of the European Community Youth Orchestra. Since then, he has enjoyed successful performances in some of Europe's largest concert halls. Мо. Judd is the honorary music director of both the South Korean Philharmonic Orchestra in Daejeon and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He has toured Europe with the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra and participated in the Seoul Arts Center Festival. He has performed with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at the Olympic Arts Festival in Sydney, the Auckland International Arts Festival and the Osaka International Orchestra Festival. He led the NZSO on their first tour of Europe's major concert halls, including their debut at the BBC Proms, and remains actively involved with the orchestra to this day. Judd has also held artistic positions with the Slovak Philharmonic, the Israel Symphony Orchestra, the Lille National Orchestra and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. His 14 years as music director of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra culminated in international acclaim for their recordings of works by Walton, Bernstein and Mahler. In recent seasons, Judd has conducted the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Hungarian National Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic, the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, and the Slovenian National Philharmonic. He conducted the Romanian Radio Orchestra in a performance of Britten's War Requiem at the George Enescu Festival and has appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and numerous American orchestras. He concludes 2024 with concerts in Bratislava with the Slovak Philharmonic and six concerts with the Engiadina Opera Orchestra in Switzerland. He is a regular guest at the English National Opera, the Wexford Opera Festival, the Glyndebourne Festival, and the Grand Opera in Florida. His discography is bound up with his extensive concert repertoire. Judd is a distinguished interpreter of English orchestral music and recorded Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 with the Halle Symphony Orchestra, receiving wide acclaim from the composer’s admirers. He has conducted a number of works by Gustav Mahler on international stages; his recording of the Symphony No. 1 was awarded the Diapason D’Or and Toblacher Komponierhäuschen prizes for the best recording of the year. He has also recorded for Decca, EMI, Philips and „Gramola“. Actively committed to music education, in 2008 James Judd founded the Miami Music Project in South Florida, which received generous support from the John and James Knight Foundation to provide performance opportunities to hundreds of children from diverse backgrounds and underprivileged communities in the city. During the past and current season, his work in New Zealand has been devoted to numerous projects: educational, operational, and symphonic. He is a guest conductor in Florida, Buenos Aires, and China.