TMA149 Members

James Price is known for his versatility as a solo, symphonic, chamber, and Latin percussionist. As a symphonic and chamber percussionist he has performed with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Da Camera, Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, and the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Jazz Orchestra in the United States. In Latin America, he has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra of Paraguay, Camerata Latinoamericana in Costa Rica, and El Salvador Symphony Orchestra. More recently, in Canada, he has performed with 7th Toronto Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery Band, Huronia Symphony Orchestra, Peterborough Symphony Orchestra and Kindred Spirits Orchestra. As a latin percussionist he has performed congas, bongo, timbales, mallet instruments and accessories with the Latin jazz band Martes 8:30.

In the United States, he has performed as a percussion and marimba soloist at festivals such as the Olivet Nazarene University Day of Percussion Festival, the Marimba 2010 International Festival and Conference, as a showcase performer at the 2009 Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) and the 2006 Contemporary Composers Festival dedicated to Elliot Carter. In Latin America, he has been a soloist at the Winter Festival of the National University of Asunción Paraguay, First Festival of Contemporary Music Festival at the University of Costa Rica, the VII, XIV and XV International Festival of Contemporary Music of El Salvador, the 42nd Anniversary Festival of the National Center of Arts of El Salvador. He performed André Jolivet’s Concerto Pour percussion et orchestre, Darius Milhaud’s Concerto pour batterie et petit orchestra and William Kraft’s Concerto for Four Percussion Soloists & Jazz Orchestra with El Salvador Symphony Orchestra.

His recorded work can be heard on the production Venus Notorious on Inn-Nova Records and Impressions Sinfonia Da Camera on Albany Records. He has made radio and television broadcasts for the European Broadcasting Union (E.B.U), the National Public Radio (N.P.R), 98.7 WFMT Chicago, Channel 15 of the University of Costa Rica and Channel 10 of El Salvador. His interest in contemporary music has led him to collaborate with some of the most prominent composers in the United States such as Elliott Carter, Elliott Schwartz, Susan Botti and Zack Browning, and in Latin America with composers such as Marlos Nobre, Jorge Sarmientos and Germán Cáceres, and with the English composer Kieth Emerson and the Balinese composer I Ketut Gede Asnawa.

His article “A Performer’s Guide to Sarmientos’s ‘Concierto Para Marimba y Orquesta’” was published by Percussive Notes, and his articles “El Salvador: History, Culture, and Geography of Music” and “El Salvador: Modern and Contemporary Performance Practice” were published by The SAGE Encyclopedia of Music and Culture

James Price holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in percussion with a minor in composition from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. During his time at the University of Illinois he was awarded Swanson Family Percussion Fellowship and Creative and Performing Arts Fellowship, as well as the Edgard Varèse Percussion Award. He also holds a Master of Music degree from the University of Minnesota where he was awarded the Harvey V. Berneking Fellowship and a Bachelor of Music degree in percussion performance from the University of Costa Rica.