James Brookmyre performs as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician with leading ensembles in the UK and abroad where these engagements have taken him across Europe, USA, and the Middle East. Recent performance highlights include playing as a principal with the Bremen Barockorchester, La Petite Bande, Brecon Baroque, Welsh National Opera and the Flanders Recorder Quartet. 

An enthusiastic educator, James holds teaching positions at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and Cardiff University and teaches every year at the Moulin de Cajarc in Cordes-sur-Ciel where he works with an international cohort of students.

He recently premiered Lynne Plowman’s Bird Music for recorders and piano, is preparing a recital of the Bach flute sonatas on voice flute and harpsichord, and performed Telemann’s Concerto for Recorder and Viola da Gamba with Reiko Ichise, directed by Rachel Podger.

James graduated from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with first class honours and at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, where he studied recorder and clarinet. His teachers have included Ian Wilson,  Pedro Memelsdorff, Pamela Thorby, Jane Booth, Dame Thea King, Robert Ehrlich and Lorenzo Coppola.

He is currently pursuing a PhD in musicology at Cardiff University, where he holds the department scholarship, and is Producer for the Brecon Baroque Festival.