James Orford is a prize-winning organist and pianist based in London. He has recently taken up the post of Organist at St Paul’s Cathedral, London and has spent many years building a portfolio freelance career as a soloist, accompanist, continuo player, repetiteur, and teacher. Before moving to St Paul’s, he was the Organist and Assistant Director of Music at St Paul’s, Knightsbridge and the Acting College Organist and Head of Organ at Eton College. Prior to this, he was the Organist in Residence at Westminster Cathedral and completed organ scholarships at St Paul’s and Truro Cathedrals, the Royal Hospital Chelsea, and King’s College, London.  Having started his organ studies with James McVinnie and Christian Wilson, he later studied with Bine Bryndorf and David Titterington at the Royal Academy of Music. He obtained top marks in both his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and was awarded the Duchess of Gloucester’s award for exemplary studentship upon completion of his undergraduate course. In recognition of this, he was subsequently awarded one of the Academy’s prestigious Bicentenary Scholarships for his Master’s degree.

James enjoys a busy performing schedule as a soloist and has given recitals and concerts in many of the UK’s most notable venues and at a number of major festivals, including at St Paul’s, Westminster, and Liverpool Cathedrals, Westminster Abbey, the Royal Festival Hall, and the Royal Albert Hall.  Recital venues abroad include Roskilde Cathedral, Denmark, Sint Niklaaskerk, Ghent, and the Chiesa dell'Annunziata, Todi, Italy. Other personal highlights include giving the annual performance of Messiaen’s La Nativité at Westminster Cathedral in 2019, giving the Celebrity Organ Recital at Reading Town Hall for the GAIA Earth installation, and being asked to give the opening recital for the newly restored organ at St Mellitus’ Church, Tollington Park, London.  In 2021, his debut solo album - his own complete organ transcription of Vivaldi’s L’estro Armonico (as well as J.S. Bach’s transcriptions BWV 593 and 596) - was released on the Linn Record Label. It was recorded at the Dutch Church, London and in the Duke’s Hall at the Royal Academy of Music and was featured on Apple Music’s Classical A-list.  In 2022, he recorded a brand new organ concerto by Richard Pantcheff, which was written for him and Michael Waldron.

As an accompanist, James has worked with a vast number of choirs, both professional and amateur. Among these are The Sixteen, the Monteverdi Choir, Tenebrae, the London Choral Sinfonia, Sansara, Thames Philharmonic Choir, and many other cathedral and church choirs. He has accompanied choral performances in the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, Sweden, and Nigeria and appears on several choral discs as both an organist and pianist. These collaborations include recordings with the London Choral Sinfonia and the Chapel Choirs of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, and King’s College, London. In amongst these discs are several world premiere recordings, including music by Sir Stephen Hough, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Jean Langlais, Lennox Berkeley, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Francis Grier. Mirabilis, a recently released disc of Stephen Hough’s choral music was one of Gramophone Magazine’s “Best Classical Albums of 2023”. In 2020, he recorded Bach’s entire Johannus Passion (organ only), and the Duruflé and Fauré Requiems on the organ for the Choir of the Earth (then the Self-Isolation Choir). He has played for numerous radio broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM with such choirs as Genesis Sixteen, The Rodolfus Foundation, the Chapel Choir of King’s College, London, and the choirs of St Paul’s, Knightsbridge and St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh. He has performed in orchestral contexts too and has worked with the BBC Concert Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, and the City of London Sinfonia. Orchestral highlights include playing in Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with Semyon Bychkov and the 8th Symphony with Ronald Corp, both at the Royal Festival Hall.

James is also an accomplished pianist, working primarily as an accompanist and chamber player. He has won accompanist prizes in the AESS English Song Competition 18-23 section, the John Kerr English Song Competition, and the Marjorie Thomas Art of Song Prize. He was the pianist for St Paul’s Cathedral’s Vierne 150 concert series in 2020, which featured performances of the Violin Sonata, and the song cycle Spleens et Detresses. He was the pianist for the London Choral Sinfonia’s disc Colourise, the centrepiece of which was Vaughan Williams’ own arrangement of the Five Mystical Songs for baritone (Roderick Williams), choir, strings, and piano. He has just recorded an English Song disc with baritone Alex Bower-Brown, which features the solo baritone version of the Five Mystical Songs, the Songs of Travel, and shorter cycles by Amy Beach and Jonathan Dove.