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Layton James Known to all as "Skip," Layton James has been principal keyboard artist with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra since 1969, performing on instruments including the harpsichord, piano, organ, celesta and synthesizer. Acknowledged as an outstanding chamber musician, orchestra soloist and keyboard improviser in the Baroque style, James is also a conductor and composer who has established an international reputation as a composer of cadenzas for Baroque and Classical concertos. For the SPCO, he has conducted Holiday concerts and the annual "People's Messiah." His recent composition projects include a realization of the Bach B-Minor Partita, originally for solo violin, for full string orchestra, which was premiered by Steven Copes and the SPCO in April 2002. Another commission, Water Music, was recently performed at the Fourth of July celebrations at the Lake Harriet bandshell. As an arranger, Skip has scored Christmas Carols, organ music, and choral selections for the SPCO Holiday Concerts, Cantus and Carols. His most recent commission was the setting of our National Anthem for the SPCO. His choral works are published by MorningStar, Cantica Nova, and Augsburg Fortress. He has performed with the Atlanta and Saint Louis symphonies, the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, the Nebraska Chamber Orchestra, and summer festivals with the Lake Placid Sinfonietta (New York), Music at Gretna (Pennsylvania), Music in the Vineyards and Village Bach Festival (Cass City, Michigan). James is Music Director and organist at Bethel Lutheran Church in Hudson, Wisconsin, and has been clinician for the American Choral Directors Association and the American Guild of Organists. He has performed as organist and harpsichordist on several LifeStyle Records albums, and is featured harpsichordist on Robert Shaw's 1984 and 1987 recordings of Handel's Messiah. Also a builder of harpsichords, James plays one of his instruments with the SPCO. He trained as a musicologist under Dr. Donald Grout at Cornell University and has taught music history and performance practice courses at the University of Hawaii, Stanford, Cornell, Macalester College and Westminster Choir College. James presents the popular "Fanfare" pre-concert talks before SPCO Basically Baroque and Morning Coffee concerts. In his spare time, he is an enthusiastic trout fisherman and amateur chef. |