James Blachly, conductor
Photo by Allison Stock
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“Ethel Smyth, the British suffragist, has found another advocate in the conductor James Blachly, whose recording of her last major work, “The Prison,” from 1931, exudes quality (Chandos) — an album of the year, by any measure.”
“The conductor James Blachly elicits splendid work from the vocal soloists, Sarah Brailey and Dashon Burton, and from the Experiential Orchestra and Chorus.”
James Blachly is a Grammy®-winning conductor dedicated to enriching the concert experience by connecting with audiences in memorable and meaningful ways. He serves as Music Director of the Experiential Orchestra and the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra, and is a versatile guest conductor in diverse repertoire for orchestra and opera. Blachly’s performances have been praised by The Guardian for “catch[ing] the music’s sweeping, sonorous energy,” while Musical America applauds his “sense of finesse and reverence.”
Blachly’s recent and upcoming guest conducting engagements include the New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic, and WDR Funkhausorchester. Other recent appearances include the Williamsburg Symphony, Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic, Malaysian Philharmonic, Spokane Symphony, Portland Symphony (ME), Danbury Symphony, and Odyssey Opera (Boston), as well as performances at Trinity Church Wall Street, Roulette, National Sawdust, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center. In 2024, Blachly made his German conducting debut with the WDR Funkhausorchester as part of the Rheingau Musik Festival alongside violinist Daniel Hope. He also led the WDR Funkhausorchester in a recording of Ethel Smyth's Serenade in D, and was immediately invited on short notice to perform with the Philharmonie Südwestphalen in a performance of Schedrin’s Carmen Suite.
In recent seasons, Blachly has collaborated with soloists Daniel Hope, Paul Jacobs, Julia Bullock, Dashon Burton, Michelle Cann, Andrew Yee, Curtis Stewart, Simone Porter, Charles Yang, Helga Davis, Sarah Brailey, Andrés Cárdenes, Peter Dugan, Michael Chioldi, Karen Kim, and more. A strong supporter of composers of our time, Blachly has commissioned and premiered more than 40 works by composers including Jessie Montgomery, Courtney Bryan, Viet Cuong, Michi Wiancko, Kate Copeland Ettinger, Tommy Daugherty, Patrick Castillo, Brad and Doug Balliett, and many others.
With the Experiential Orchestra (EXO), Blachly has conducted the works of Arvo Pärt at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, invited audiences to dance to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, sit within the orchestra at Lincoln Center, and engage with Symphonie fantastique and Petrushka with circus choreography at The Muse in Brooklyn. Recently, he led the Experiential Orchestra in a subscription concert at the Phillips Collection, in an immersive performance of Strauss’s Four Last Songs Reimagined with cellist Andrew Yee and soprano Sarah Brailey, and in the New York premiere of Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto with soloist Curtis Stewart.
In 2024, Blachly released American Counterpoints, his first recording with EXO since their Grammy® Award in 2021, which features the world premiere recording of Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto with Curtis Stewart. Released on Bright Shiny Things, American Counterpoints spotlights composers Julia Perry and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, asserting the central importance of these underrecognized composers in American classical music. American Counterpoints garnered acclaim from the New York Times, BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, and NPR, among others. Following the release of American Counterpoints, EXO partnered with Videmus to organize the largest celebration of Julia Perry in the world, in honor of her centenary. The Julia Perry Centenary Celebration & Festival brought more than 100 performers, scholars, and leaders in musicology to venues across New York City, including Le Poisson Rouge, The New School, The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, and Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.
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James Blachly’s reputation as a powerful advocate for undercelebrated composers was established with his world premiere recording with EXO of English composer Dame Ethel Smyth’s 1930 masterpiece The Prison. Released on Chandos Records, The Prison won a 2021 Grammy Award and was widely acclaimed by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Gramophone, San Francisco Chronicle, Financial Times, The Guardian, and many others. Blachly is the editor of the new Wise Music Group critical edition that has not only made modern performances and this recording possible, but has also contributed to renewed interest in Smyth's work. This is the first-ever Grammy Award for music by Smyth, who lived from 1858-1944 and struggled her entire career to have her music judged on its merits rather than on the basis of her gender.
With the Johnstown Symphony, James Blachly has conducted the orchestra at the Flight 93 Memorial for the 20th Anniversary of 9/11, in a former steel mill in a concert that was featured on Katie Couric’s America Inside Out, at the First Summit Arena at the War Memorial, and dramatically expanded access to the symphony throughout the region. During his nine seasons with the Johnstown Symphony, Blachly has emphasized long-term relationship building with community leaders, expanding youth programs and education initiatives including annual side-by-side performances with the youth orchestra, initiating a youth concerto competition, and holding auditions for local talent to perform with the symphony on “Johnstown’s Got Talent” pops concerts.
Blachly has dedicated himself to using music to bring the Johnstown community together, creating an annual Martin Luther King Jr. concert and a Juneteenth concert in partnership with the NAACP, from which he received a commendation. During the 2024-25 season, he continues his innovative programming with a candlelight concert at The Grand Halle, a concert focusing on Jewish composers whose lives were tragically impacted by the Holocaust, and a multimedia performance honoring the industrial history of the Johnstown region. Over the course of his directorship, both individual and season ticket sales have increased by more than 50%, and individual giving has increased 80%, a testament to the energy and enthusiasm that has defined his tenure. Blachly has extended his Music Directorship with the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra through 2026.
Blachly has held residencies at Carnegie Mellon University, conducting the first orchestral performance in the renovated Carnegie Music Hall, and at Montclair State University as a Cali Immersive Residency Artist. During his MSU residency, he delivered keynote lectures on composition, conducting, and choral techniques, culminating in an Experiential Orchestra-style immersive performance, featuring composer-in-residence Jessie Montgomery. In 2016, Blachly was the only conductor from the U.S. invited to participate in the Young Conductor’s Showcase as a part of El Sistema’s 40th Anniversary celebration, and he was also the only U.S. conductor to be invited as Conducting Fellow in Maestra Marin Alsop's final year at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. He has also conducted dozens of educational concerts for thousands of school children. For ten years he conducted workshops and clinics for the New York Philharmonic, served as Ensemble Director for the Baltimore Symphony’s OrchKids program, and conducted clinics and appearances throughout western Pennsylvania for the JSO. From 2010 to 2015, he performed benefit concerts of Mahler symphonies with New York freelancers to launch what is now Make Music NOLA, a thriving El Sistema-Inspired program in New Orleans.
In 2020, Blachly was invited to serve as the Associate Editor and Orchestral Liaison for the African Diaspora Music Project, directed by Dr. Louise Toppin. He has overseen the compilation of a database and website detailing more than 1,300 published works for orchestra by African diaspora composers. At the invitation of founder Charles Dickerson, he assisted in curating a concert celebrating works for orchestra by African Diaspora composers, and was one of six conductors to lead the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles at the League of American Orchestras conference.
Also active as a composer, James Blachly studied at Mannes with Robert Cuckson and privately with Charles Wuorinen and John Corigliano. His compositions have been celebrated as “vigorous and assured” by Chamber Music America and a “splendidly crafted…tour de force” by the Miami Herald, and have been performed at The Stone, Zankel Hall, in an audience for the Pope, and broadcast live on the CBC.
“Led by conductor James Blachly, the [Experiential Orchestra] takes an unconventional approach to classical music: Think spontaneous swaying, dancing and general revelry—or wherever the music leads you.”
NEWS
“James Blachly has been a gift to Johnstown, his passion and imagination a blessing for his Johnstown Symphony Orchestra and our region.”
PHOTOS
“Throughout the concert, Blachly displayed an articulate and artistic style, his every gesture finding immediate orchestral response.”
AUDIO
“Another plus is the talented orchestra, which is splendidly served by ... the supple conducting of James Blachly, who illuminates the vivacity and the poignancy of Mozart’s score.”