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James Blachly is a Grammy®-winning conductor dedicated to enriching the concert experience by connecting with audiences in memorable and meaningful ways. James Blachly serves as Music Director of Experiential Orchestra and Johnstown Symphony Orchestra. He is a versatile guest conductor in diverse repertoire for orchestras including New York Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and WDR Funkhausorchester.

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, engage in an immersive performance of Strauss’s Four Last Songs Reimagined with cellist Andrew Yee and soprano Sarah Brailey, and gave the New York and Washington D.C. premiere of Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto with soloist Curtis Stewart. During his most recent season, EXO partnered with Videmus to organize the largest celebration of Julia Perry in the world, in honor of her centenary.

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, Financial Times, The Guardian, and many others. 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. In 2024, Blachly released American Counterpoints which features the world premiere recording of Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto with Curtis Stewart and earned two Grammy Award nominations. 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.

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. In recent seasons, he has collaborated with soloists Daniel Hope, Paul Jacobs, Julia Bullock, Dashon Burton, Michelle Cann, Andrew Yee, Curtis Stewart, Simone Porter, and more.

With the Johnstown Symphony, 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 in eight seasons the orchestra has increased season ticket sales and annual giving each by more than 50%. In 2021, he received a commendation by the City of Johnstown and the Johnstown chapter of the NAACP. In recent seasons, Blachly has introduced an annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Juneteenth, and youth concert.

Full biography here.

Experiential Orchestra announces 2026-27 Season

The season opens on October 23, 2026 with An Embrace of Sound, a celebration of the music of composer Anna Clyne, including the New York City premiere of her Dance for Cello and Orchestra, featuring cellist Inbal Segev (who commissioned and recorded the work), as well as Clyne’s This Midnight Hour and Within Her Arms, at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music (450 W. 37th St., New York, NY). On February 20, 2027 at Roulette Intermedium (509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn, NY), EXO presents Music in a Time of War, a concert featuring three acclaimed soloists: Paul Neubauer, Stewart Goodyear, and Michelle Barzel Ross. On May 22, 2027 at the New York Society for Ethical Culture (2 W 64th St., New York, NY), EXO performs the choral music of Arvo Pärt, expanding the orchestra’s ongoing relationship with the Estonian composer. The final event of the season is a reprise of EXO’s celebrated collaboration with composer Brad Balliett in his A Field Guide to Imaginary Birds, to be held outdoors at Inwood Hill Park in Spring 2027 (details TBA).

‍Experiential Orchestra Music Director James Blachly says, “This season brings together extraordinary composers, internationally acclaimed soloists, and beautiful venues to create concerts that we hope will speak directly to our audience from a place of strength and comfort. In October, we embrace the way that Anna Clyne's music is uniquely attuned to the way we can turn to music and poetry in life's hardest moments. In February, we turn to several of the most celebrated 20th century composers and their personal responses to the cost of war. And in May, we see how the choral music of Arvo Pärt fits within the context of the Estonian Singing Revolution – when an entire nation rose together through the power of song.”

‍EXO’s season opening concert on October 23, 2026, An Embrace of Sound, is a celebration of the music of Anna Clyne. It features the New York City premiere of Clyne’s Dance for Cello and Orchestra, performed with Inbal Segev, for whom it was written. The program also includes Clyne’s This Midnight Hour, an evocative tour de force for orchestra, which was written in part as a response to the poetry of Charles Baudelaire and Juan Ramón Jiménez. Clyne’s Within Her Arms, written in the wake of the death of her mother, opens the program, with the EXO strings surrounding the audience at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in a sound embrace.

Music in a Time of War on February 20, 2027 at Roulette Intermedium presents four powerful works that reflect on the cost of war. Internationally acclaimed violist Paul Neubauer performs Herbert Howells’s gorgeous and rarely performed Elegy for viola, string quartet and string orchestra; GRAMMY-nominated pianist Stewart Goodyear performs Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s 1973 composition Grass, a reflection on the Vietnam War; and violinist Michelle Barzel Ross performs Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending, orchestrated in the direct aftermath of the First World War, during which Williams served as a stretcher carrier (inspired by his love of the poetry of Walt Whitman). Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, composed in 1938 as the world marched towards global conflict, completes the program.

EXO has established a deep relationship with the music of Arvo Pärt through previous concerts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. On May 22, 2027 at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, EXO presents Strength Through Song: Choral Music of Arvo Pärt, a program that pairs the Estonian composer’s profound sacred choral works and works for string quartet, including Estonian folk songs that formed a part of the Estonian Singing Revolution, a movement that helped the small Baltic country face the adversity of occupation by the USSR. The concert will include Pärt’s works Drei Hirtenkinder, Silouan’s Song (for SATB Chorus), Nunc Dimittis, Psalom for String Quartet, Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen, Most Holy Mother of God, Estonian Lullaby, Fratres for String Quartet, “Prayer after the Kanon” from Kanon Pokajanen, and Da Pacem.

Finally, in Spring 2027 (details TBA), EXO will again present Brad Balliet’s A Field Guide to Imaginary Birds outdoors in Inwood Hill Park. This is an immersive, experiential program designed with families and bird-lovers in mind, in which participants will discover the songs of seven remarkable imaginary birds.

Symphonic Visions: Blachly’s 11th season as Music Director of the Johnstown Symphony

“The Johnstown Symphony’s 98th Season: Symphonic Visions brings music to life through imagination, color, and bold ideas. From sweeping soundscapes to film scores and art-inspired works, this is a season that invites you to experience the orchestra in a fresh and exciting way.  You will hear the magic of Harry Potter, the beauty of La Mer, the power of Beethoven, and music that brings our community together in so many ways. Familiar and unexpected, this season is designed to surprise, inspire, and move you. Above all, this season is joyful, energizing, and welcoming, whether you are joining us for the first time or if you are a long-time season ticket holder. This is your symphony, your sound and the vision we share.”

Information here

American Counterpoints Nominated for Two 2025 Grammy Awards for Best Classical Compendium and for Best Classical Instrumental Solo

Following on our Grammy®-Winning Smyth recording, Experiential Orchestra is proud to announce the world-premiere recording of Julia Perry’s Concrto for Violin and Orchestra with soloist Curtis Stewart. The album was officially released March 1, 2024 on the Bright Shiny Things label.

Featuring the world-premiere recording of Julia Perry's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, the album asserts the central importance of composers Julia Perry and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson in American classical music, juxtaposing early and late works of both composers and interweaving their compositions with original music by Curtis Stewart. Buy the album here.

Reviewed on NPR and more.

"There aren’t too many albums, however good they might be, that make me stop everything all at once to listen to a second time. This is that album.  Founder/conductor Blachly and the Experiential Orchestra could very well find themselves on track for a second Grammy Award for this incredible recording.” -Craig Byrd, Cultural Attaché

Still Celebrating –

James Blachly won a 2021 Grammy® Award for conducting Experiential Orchestra’s
World-Premiere Recording of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison, released on Chandos Records