Buddy James is Professor of Music at California State University, East Bay where he is Chair of the Department of Music, Coordinator of Choral and Vocal Studies, and was the Founding Director of the School of Arts and Media. He was the recipient of the 2015-16 George and Miriam Phillips Outstanding Professor Award and the 2022-2023 Faculty Excellence Award in the College of Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences. He has taught at the University of Southern California, the University of California at Berkeley and Irvine, Whittier College, Elizabethtown College, and Millersville University, where he was named Person of the Year in 2004. Having taught all age groups in both public and private schools, he is a frequent adjudicator and clinician for competitions, workshops, and festivals, and recent trips have taken him to Latin America, Europe, and Asia. In March 2014 he conducted the East Bay Singers by invitation at Japan’s Fukuoka Institute of Technology. In 2007 he guest conducted Pro Musica Vilnius in Lithuania in a program of American music, and his ensembles represented the United States at the 2005 and 2008 World Choral Festivals in Puebla, México and in Vilnius in 2009 in celebration of the anniversary of Pro Music Vilnius and Vilnius’ designation as the European Capital of Culture. Conducting credits include performances for The Lancaster Opera Company, Composers Inc., the University of California Irvine Symphony Orchestra, the Whittier Bach Festival, musicanovus, the University of Akron New Music Ensemble, and he was music director of the CSU East Bay Symphony Orchestra from 2007 to 2010.
