James Cooper has performed throughout the United States and abroad in leading venues such as Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Chicago Symphony Center, Seiji Ozawa Hall, Toppan Hall in Tokyo, the Benedict Music Tent, and Usher Hall in Edinburgh.
He joined the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in September of 2022. He is a former principal cellist of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.
In 2021 he was awarded the Pirastro Young Artist Prize at the Erben Music Festival in Munich. Previously he was awarded full-tuition fellowships for numerous seasons to study and perform at the Aspen Music Festival and School. In 2019 he was awarded the Beth Newdome Fellowship to perform and study with the Dover String Quartet at the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival. He is also the First Prize winner of the Samuel and Elinor Thaviu String Performance Competition and the Houston Civic Symphony Young Artist Competition.
He has participated in the Kronberg Academy Masterclasses, International Music Seminar Prussia Cove, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Meadowmount School of Music, Cello Akademie Rutesheim, International Music Festival Nippon, and the New York String Orchestra Seminar.
He has been invited to actively participate in many masterclasses with leading cellists such as Lynn Harrell, Steven Isserlis, Gary Hoffman, Danjulo Ishizaka, Mario Brunello, Robert deMaine, and Alisa Weilerstein.
He has performed as soloist with the Colburn Orchestra, Northwestern Philharmonia, Northwestern Baroque Ensemble, Houston Civic Symphony, Houston Youth Orchestra, and the Kinder School for the Performing and Visual Arts Symphony.
He has performed chamber music with many internationally recognized artists. He performed with Augustin Hadelich, Denis Bouriakov, and Anthony Marwood in the Colburn Chamber Music Society, and he has also performed in concert with Camden Shaw, James Dunham, and Robert McDuffie. He presented the world-premiere of Ultraviolet for Cello, Clarinet, and Piano by Pierre Jalbert of Rice University, Shepherd School of Music.
He has worked with renown conductors such as Michael Tilson Thomas, Sir Neville Marriner, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Stéphane Denève, Robert Spano, Ludovic Morlot, and Hannu Lintu, among others.
He is an active cello teacher at the Quattro String Academy in Carmel IN.
He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Colburn Conservatory, where he studied with Ronald Leonard. He also holds a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, Bienen School of Music, where he studied with Hans Jorgen Jensen. He currently plays on a 1967 Carl Becker cello.