Hailed as “Australia’s most exciting young cellist” (Limelight), Switzerland-based cellist James Morley is a new-music-focused solo/collaborative musician, whose recent highlights include critically-acclaimed debut recitals at Sydney Opera House Utzon Room (2023), UKARIA (Adelaide Festival 2022), Phoenix Central Park (2024), and a Musica Viva national tour with Jean-Guihen Queyras and Satsuki Odamura (2023). He works largely as a soloist and chamber musician, and frequently extends into experimental improvisation, electronics, orchestral work, and post-instrumental performance.
James has premiered works by many of the world’s most relevant composers, including a solo by Liza Lim, and chamber works by Bernhard Lang and Thomas Adès, at major festivals across the globe. He is currently a finalist for the 2024 Young Classical Artists Trust competition in London
He studied cello across Australia with Julian Smiles and Howard Penny, and is now completing a Masters of Contemporary Music at the Musik-Akademie Basel, with guidance from Thomas Demenga. He was academist with Kammerorchester Basel and Australian Chamber Orchestra, has performed concertos with Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Apex, Sydney and Adelaide Youth Orchestras, and was a finalist of the prestigious 2020 Freedman Fellowship.
www.jamesmorleyxcello.com