Born in 1990 in Torquay. In 2013, having studied saxophone, musicology, and composition at Oxford University, they moved to Copenhagen (where they live now) to complete their composition studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. Their teachers were Hans Abrahamsen, Bent Sørensen, Jeppe Just Christensen, Niels Rosing-Schow and Hans Peter Stubbe Tejlbjærg; they graduated from the soloist class in February 2018. James Black’s works have been performed at KLANG festival. Major accolades include the Pelle-Prisen (so named after the composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, 2018), Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Talent Award (2019), and the large working grant of the Danish Arts Foundation (2020). 

Selected works: Ground Moves for orchestra (2016), Choral Preludes for flute, saxophone, guitar, and percussion (2016), Five Landscapes for live drawing and electronics (2017), Everything is gonna burn, we’ll all take turns (I’ll take mine too) for violin, guitar, accordion, piano and double bass (2017), RAUS for soloist and sinfonietta (2017), Three Songs for good health for three performers (2017), SPEAK for accordion and ensemble (2018), This piece will improve your life for 12 performers (2018), Antifleur for saxophone, guitar and video (2019), Piece about everything for accordion and video (2019), POSY – a pageant for five performers, marching band and installation (2019), I love you, Shakkoumon for bass clarinet, trombone and video (2020), POSY II – the life of POSY for piano, percussion and video (2020), Colossi for violin, piano and video (2020), Winterhead for performer and six electric guitars (2021), MUSHROOM, music theatre work for eight performers, three crabs and video (2022), HEL for viola, accordion and video (2022).