With performances described as “triumphant” (Tulsa World) and “galvanizing” (New York Classical Review), James Bagwell maintains an active schedule as a conductor of choral, orchestral and opera repertoire.
From 2009 to 2015, he served as music director of the Collegiate Chorale. Highlights with the Chorale included conducting at Carnegie Hall rarely performed operas such as Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda, Rossini’s Möise et Pharaon and Boito’s Mefistofele. He conducted the New York premiere of Philip Glass’ Toltec Symphony and Osvaldo Golijov’s Oceana at Carnegie Hall. His performance of Kurt Weill’s Knickerbocker Holiday at Alice Tully Hall was recorded live for Gaslight Records and is the only complete recording of the work. Bagwell prepared the Chorale for many concerts at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland and for programs with the Israel Philharmonic in Israel and the Salzburg Festival.
Other performances include Glass’ Another Look at Harmony at the Park Avenue Armory and Poulenc’s Gloria at St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York. From 2005 to 2010, he was music director of the Dessoff Choirs in New York, which, under his leadership, made many appearances at Carnegie Hall, in addition to its regular season.
A noted preparer of choruses, Bagwell prepared the Concert Chorale of New York for performances of Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony for the New York Philharmonic and Brahms’ German Requiem for Jaap van Zweden’s inaugural season as the New York Philharmonic’s music director in 2019; this was followed in 2020 when he prepared Mozart’s C Minor Mass for the N.Y. Philharmonic. Beginning in 2005, he regularly collaborated with the Mostly Mozart Festival with several performances broadcast nationally on "Live from Lincoln Center." In 2018 and 2019, he prepared performances for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and several concerts for Mostly Mozart, including Bernstein’s Mass — all in David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. As chorus master for the American Symphony Orchestra, he received accolades for his work on Luigi Nono’s Intolleranza at Carnegie Hall.
Bagwell has trained choruses for other American and international orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, NHK Symphony (Japan), St. Petersburg Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. He has worked with such noted conductors as Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Andris Nelsons, Alan Gilbert, Gianandrea Noseda, Valery Gergiev, Yannik Nézet-Séguin, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Louis Langrée, Leonard Slatkin, Leon Botstein, Ivan Fischer, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Raymond Leppard, James Conlon, Jesús López-Cobos, Erich Kunzel, Leon Fleischer and Robert Shaw.
Since 2003, he has been director of choruses for the Bard Music Festival, conducting and preparing choral works during the summer festival at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Upcoming collaborations include preparing the Bard Festival Chorale for a performance of Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall.
In 2015, Bagwell was named associate conductor of the Orchestra Now, and in 2009, he was appointed principal guest conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra. He has led both ensembles in concerts at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York City.
Bagwell is a regular guest conductor for the Tulsa Symphony, leading it in performances of Mozart’s Requiem and Brahms’ German Requiem, returning in subsequent seasons to conduct Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem and Mahler’s First Symphony. In January 2025, he led Tulsa Symphony in a rare performance of Carl Nielson’s symphony The Inextinguishable and in May 2026, he will lead the orchestra in Mahler’s Second Symphony.
Bagwell has collaborated since 2011 with singer and composer Natalie Merchant, conducting orchestras across the country, including the San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix and Nashville symphonies. Over the last two years, they have made appearances together with the Atlanta, Nashville and Rhode Island symphonies, and notably the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
As music director of Light Opera Oklahoma, Bagwell conducted some 25 productions, including Die Fledermaus, Sweeney Todd and The Merry Widow, among others. At Bard SummerScape, he has led many theatrical works, most notably Copland’s The Tender Land, which received glowing praise from the New York Times, the New Yorker and Opera News. He led the Little Opera Theatre of New York’s production of Rossini’s Opportunity Makes the Thief. In November 2021, he conducted a new production of L’amico Fritz for Teatro Grattacielo in New York. Other recent productions led by Bagwell include The Cunning Little Vixen, Candide, Iolanthe and Orpheus in the Underworld.
Bagwell holds degrees from Birmingham-Southern College, Florida State University and Indiana University. He is professor of music and music program director at Bard College, and director of performance studies in the Bard College Conservatory of Music. He serves as co-director of the Bard Conservatory’s graduate program in conducting.
March 2025
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSOA by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
