Active as a concerto soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, conductor and educator, James Buswell is one of the most versatile musicians performing today; in all of these capacities, he elicits the highest praise from audiences, critics and fellow musicians alike. He has appeared with virtually all of the major orchestras in the United States and Canada, as well as with orchestras in Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America and has collaborated with such distinguished conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Seiji Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, Andre Previn, Erich Leinsdorf, Zubin Mehta, George Szell and Leonard Berstein. In recital, he is noted for adventuresome programming, regularly combining standard masterpieces with works that are less well-known. Mr. Buswell often performs unaccompanied violin recitals featuring the works of Bach, Ysaye, and Paganini, in addition to the masterpieces of the 20th century.
James Buswell is as closely associated with new music as he has been with the standard repertoire. World premiere performances include works by Donald Erb, Charles Wuorinen, Gian Carlo Menotti, Ned Rorem, Leon Kirchner, John Harbison, Gunther Schuller, William Bolcom, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Yehudi Wyner. As an award-winning recording artist for Naxos, he has revived the Violin Concerti and chamber music of Walter Piston and presented a definitive performance of the Violin Concerto of Samuel Barber. For many years Mr. Buswell was an artist-member of both the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Bach Aria Group, and he continues as a guest artist with many chamber music organizations. He has performed and lectured on the music of J.S. Bach all over the world, and was featured in the film, The Stations of Bach.
Mr. Buswell resides in Boston where both he and his wife, the cellist, Carol Ou, are on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music, and where he performs an annual recital in Jordan Hall. The unanimous praise for his "sensitive, evocative, compelling playing" continues, unabated, today.
