Cellist James Jaffe connects with audiences, colleagues, and composers through music. He has performed solos with CityMusic Cleveland, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the Stockton Symphony. Chamber music appearances have taken him to the Robert Mann String Quartet Institute in Manhattan, Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music, and Switzerland and France on concert tours. His performances 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.
Recognizing the immediate need for musical connections during the coronavirus pandemic, James created and performed a series of eight cello livestreams in April 2020. Since then he has worked on quarantine-era projects with many longtime friends and collaborators: livestreams with the Sierra Quartet, violinist Mélanie Clapiès, and visual artist Peggy Gyulai; hybrid events with Classical Revolution and the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival; live outdoor performances with Concerts in the Park; and new video projects with One Found Sound.
In addition to being a prolific performer, James serves as Artistic Director of Festival Rolland, a summer chamber music festival in Burgundy, France. An enthusiastic interpreter of new music, he has collaborated with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky and performed Chinary Ung’s Khse Buon for a Cleveland concert series featuring the work of displaced composers.
James appears frequently on the Groupmuse platform, which is designed to bring audiences together for intimate musical experiences. He has performed over 140 Groupmuses to date, including a sold-out performance of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden at San Francisco’s first Massivemuse.
James studied cello with Milly Rosner, Richard Aaron, Stephen Geber, Jennifer Culp, and Louise Saunders, 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.