James Paul, one of America’s most distinguished and sought-after conductors, was named Conductor and Artistic Advisor of Oregon Festival of American Music in 1997 and was the Conductor and Music Director
of The American Symphonia, OFAM's premiere repertory orchestra, from 2000-06. He is the Principal Guest Conductor of Chicago’s Grant Park concert program, the Music Director and Conductor of the Oregon Coast Music Festival in Coos Bay and Artistic Advisor of the Tulsa Philharmonic Orchestra. He served as Principal Guest Conductor of the New Orleans Symphony from 1986 through 1991 and concluded his 16th season as Music Director of the Baton Rouge Symphony in 1998.
Paul has led some of the world’s finest ensembles. His guest apprearances in North America include the Chicago Symphony (most recently in March 2000, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Symphonies of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, Seattle, San Diego, San Antonio, New Jersey, Oakland, Honolulu, Kansas City, Jacksonville and Detroit. Future and recent past engagements include the Houston Symphony, the Singapore Symphony, the National Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic the Calgary Philharmonic, Symphony Nova Scotia (Halifax), Vancouver Symphony, and the Utah Symphony. Other festival appearances include Wolf Trap, Minneapolis’ Sommerfest, and the Sewanee Music Festival.
His international appearances include the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, the London Symphony, the Orchestre Symphonique Français in Paris, the West Australian Symphony, Singapore Symphony, Tampere Philharmonic, the National Orchestra of Costa Rica and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Glasgow, with whom he recorded Paul Paray’s "Joan of Arc Mass" which won a 1998 Grammy nomination. For the last 3 years he has conducted the Niederosterreich Tonkunstler Orchestrain in a series of concerts in Vienna.
A native of Forest Grove, Oregon, James Paul studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Mozarteum in Salzburg Austria. Among his many awards is the Serge Koussevitsky Memorial Conducting Prize presented by Erich Leinsdorf at the 1967 Tanglewood Music Festival.