nj arts maven: Meet Emily James, BONJ Concertmaster

Emily James has served as BONJ Concertmaster at various concerts

during the past few seasons. She will be Concertmaster for the 2023-2024 Season.

EMILY JAMES is a versatile musician who performs regularly in the New York Metropolitan and
Tri-State area including solo, duos, trios, quartets, jazz ensembles, sacred music, and various orchestras including performances with the Pope’s Choir under the direction of Marco Frisina
and
The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey under the direction of Maestro Robert Butts.

She is a Summa Cum Laude graduate (M.A. and B.A.) from the John J. Cali School of Music, Montclair State University, where she attended on full scholarship.

Awards and distinguished honors include the All-New Jersey Academic Team, the Dean’s Scholar Award from the John J. Cali School of Music, violin concerto competition finalist in the annual Concerto Competition at the John J. Cali School of Music and the featured piano soloist of Rhapsody in Blue with the Wind Ensemble at County College of Morris.

Emily completed her second Master’s degree, an M.F.A. in Musical Theatre Writing with an emphasis on music composition from the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, where she attended on a full scholarship.

As a composer, her choral composition, Fire and Ice, was premiered by the Harmonium Choral Society Chamber Singers during their 2018 season.

Emily is passionate about making a positive difference in the lives of her students and is the 2022-2023 Governor’s Educator of the Year Award recipient at her current school.

"As concertmaster of The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey," Emily said, "I am responsible for working with the conductor to interpret gestures, leading the string section in rehearsals and performances as well as preparing the bowings and fingerings for all performance repertoires. This is a particularly important and time intensive job since all the preparation of bowing and fingerings are completed prior to the rehearsal process and require much analysis and research of historical bowings used by other orchestras in order to select the best choices for The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey.

"This careful and thoughtful process promotes continuity and fluidity within the string section of the orchestra so it can function as a cohesive ensemble. My experiences as concertmaster continue to reinforce that the distinction of concertmaster is not based on the demonstration of superior musicianship skills or dominance of power, but rather on demonstrating good musical leadership through respectful encounters and effective communication.

"My role is not to stand apart from the orchestra, which is a job of a soloist, but to focus on supporting and collaborating with others in the orchestra so that we can all successfully work together."