Bio : James Jaffe

Cellist James Jaffe connects with audiences, colleagues, and composers through music. He has performed concertos with CityMusic Cleveland, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the Stockton Symphony. Chamber music appearances have taken him to the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, the Robert Mann String Quartet Seminar in Manhattan, Beijing’s Central Conservatory, and concert tours throughout Switzerland and France. Concerts have been broadcast on Cleveland’s WCLV 104.9, Virginia’s WVTF 89.1, San Francisco’s KDFC 90.3, and streamed live from the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.

In addition to being a prolific performer, James serves as Artistic Director of Festival Rolland, a summer chamber music festival in Burgundy. An enthusiastic interpreter of new music, he presented the premiere of Kyle Randall’s Peregrinations for Solo Cello and has collaborated with Pulitzer Prize – winning composer Steven Stucky. Additionally, he is a frequent section leader and member of One Found Sound, San Francisco’s unconducted chamber orchestra.

James studied cello with Milly Rosner, Richard Aaron, Stephen Geber, and Jennifer Culp, earning degrees from the University of Michigan, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He has spent summers at the Aspen Music Festival, Music@Menlo, and the Banff Centre in Canada. Chamber music mentors include members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Takács, Tokyo, Vermeer, Emerson, Brentano, and Kronos quartets.

Passionate about sharing music with the next generation, James coaches chamber music at the Crowden School and the California Music Preparatory Academy. He has also served as director of high school chamber ensembles at Baldwin Wallace University and mentored students through the Detroit Symphony’s Civic Youth Ensembles program.