ERIN JAMES, VIOLIN

Originally from Vancouver, BC, violinist, Erin James is equally at home as a chamber musician, soloist and orchestral player. She holds a Master of Performance Degree from the Royal College of Music in London and a Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of British Columbia. Many of her performances have been aired on CBC Radio and have taken her to Canada’s most important concert halls and across Asia, Europe and North America.  As well as performing internationally, Erin has undertaken additional training in Sweden, France, Italy, England, the US and Canada.  Erin’s esteemed professors include Robert Uchida, Yossi Zivoni, Jasper Wood, and Andrew Dawes to name only a few of the musicians who have inspired and challenged her artistry. 

Erin is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Violin Performance and her thesis work combining textiles and music has been fully funded by a Bombardier Social Sciences and Humanities grant at the University of Alberta.  In her Doctoralresearch Erin combines her musical expertise with her training in Fashion Designfrom George Brown College to create interdisciplinary stagings of standardworks.  Upcoming performances include a string quartet Pocket Concert in Toronto, two appearances with orchestra playing the Dvorak Romance in Edmonton, a quartet recital with members of the Canadian Opera Company and Edmonton Symphony and her own staging of Verklärte Nacht for which she will design the lighting, create transfiguring costumes and direct the performance from the first violin chair.  Erin has also recently been awarded a scholarship from the Johann Strauss Foundation to pursue studies in Austria.

Erin received an invitation to be a violin fellow at the prestigious Music by the Sea Festival on Vancouver Island after spending a summer at Steven Dann’s chamber music workshop at Domaine Forget.  She has participated in residencies at the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance in Nova Scotia, the Banff Centre in Alberta, and the Performing Arts Forum in France.  Other training Erin has undertaken includes participation in the Lake District Summer Music course in the UK, the Aurora course in Sweden, the Centrum festival with the Tokyo String Quartet, Morningside Music Bridge and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada of which she was concertmaster. 

Erin currently performs with the Allegra Chamber Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Edmonton, the Alberta Symphony Orchestra, Early Music Alberta and the Alberta Baroque Ensemble.  Previously based in Vancouver, Erin was an avid chamber musician, violinist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and maintained studios of violin students at the Vancouver Academy of Music and the Saint James Music Academy.  Erin also toured Asia, the United States and Canada with the Vancouver Symphony, played with the Vancouver Opera Orchestra and provided incidental music for The Tempest at the Bard on the Beach Shakespeare festival.

Erin’s musical interests range from baroque to contemporary and she thoroughly enjoys any piece that is singable or danceable.  Erin has twice participated in the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute and in a Baroque Improvisation Workshop with Davide Monti.  While in London she was invited to tour Italy with a select Royal College of Music orchestra and was chosen to participate in the London Symphony Orchestra Discovery String Program and the London String Quartet Symposium.  Erin was also privileged to participate in a sit-in scheme with the BBC Symphony and to received second place in the Royal College of Music string quartet competition.

Erin’s love of chamber music is deeply rooted in her childhood where she and her violist sister, Kendra James and cellist brother, Noah James formed the Jacobean Trio and were recipients of numerous honors and awards.  During her undergraduate degree, the Etta quartet, of which Erin was a member was the topprize winner in the Friend’s of Chamber Music competition in Vancouver.  Erin was also invited to be part of the Music Bridge chamber music collaboration and tour with visiting Italian students. 

Erin is grateful to be the recent recipient of two Queen Elizabeth II Scholarships and a Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship.  Other honours include Department of Music Graduate Travel Grants, Graduate Students’ Association Travel Grants, George Brown Tuition Bursaries, the Sarah and Martin Gouin Family Graduate Travel Scholarship in Music, an Edmonton Arts Council Travel Grant and a BC Arts Council Professional Development Grant.