‘Chief honours for this performance go to James Ham. His flexible, deftly paced reading bore the stamp of authenticity, full of passionate Tchaikovskian ebb and flow’.
– Musical America on Tchaikovsky’s opera The Oprichnik, 2023.
‘Ham led a musical performance as satisfying as any I have heard from predominantly UK artists’.
– Hugh Canning on La Cenerentola with English Touring Opera, Opera Magazine , 2023.
With a genuinely collaborative approach and an exceptional range of versatility, British conductor James Ham enjoys a growing reputation for his musical conviction and curiosity across the orchestral, opera and ballet repertoire. Whether rediscovering neglected rarities, leading complex contemporary scores, or approaching the standard repertoire in a historically informed way, James sees the current time as an exciting opportunity to build new audiences.
Recent guest conducting has included the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Magdeburg Philharmonie, Neubrandenburg Philharmonie, Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Brandenburger Symphoniker, Ensemble Modern Akademie, Gibraltar Philharmonic, and New London Orchestra, as well as extensive tours with Scottish Ballet and Northern Ballet.
Equally at home in opera, James recently led the first ever performance in England of Tchaikovsky’s opera The Oprichnik, as well as the first UK revival of Oscar Straus’ operetta Der Tapfere Soldat (The Chocolate Soldier) for nearly a century – both to critical acclaim. In the 2025/26 season, James stepped in to conduct La Cenerentola with English National Opera, leading to an immediate invitation to return to the company as rehearsal and cover conductor for the UK premiere of Du Yun’s Pulitzer winning opera Angel’s Bone in the spring and also next season. James will also return to Opera della Luna to lead a new production of Oscar Straus’s The Chocolate Soldier in London and at the Iford Opera Festival together with the Bristol Ensemble. His other recent opera performances include L’Incoronazione di Poppea and La Cenerentola with English Touring Opera.
James was previously an assistant conductor with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, working with Vladimir Jurowski and Edward Gardner – whom he has also assisted at the Bayerische Staatsoper (Peter Grimes) and Norwegian National Opera (La Damnation de Faust). He was assistant conductor to Sir Mark Elder on the Norwegian premiere of Delius’ colossal Mass of Life with the Bergen Philharmonic, and worked with Karel Mark Chichon on several projects with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie. He has also assisted at the Theater an der Wien (Porgy and Bess), Longborough Festival Opera (UK premiere of Avner Dorman’s Wahnfried), and Gärtnerplatztheater (Rigoletto).
From 2015-2020, James was conductor of the London Orchestra Project, a chamber orchestra which he co-founded with the concertmaster of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Featuring some of the UK’s finest orchestral players, he conducted a diverse range of repertoire ranging from Mozart through to Schoenberg, Ligeti, and Kilar. James studied conducting at the St Petersburg Conservatory and Universität der Künste Berlin, leading to a deep affinity with the music of Russia, Germany, Austria, and central Europe, as well as that of his native Britain. He has a keen interest in contemporary music and was a member of the London Sinfonietta Academy and Lucerne Festival Academy, where he was Conducting Fellow on the contemporary music programme.
