James Burton

James Burton was the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Director of Choral Activities and Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus from his appointment in 2017 until stepping down from the position in August 2025. Burton has conducted performances at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood with the BSO and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and he has been a frequent guest conductor with the Boston Pops. Born in London, he has conducted many of the UK’s leading ensembles including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Hallé, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the BBC Singers. He has also led the Ulster Orchestra, the Aalborg Symphony in Denmark, and Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society. Burton has conducted at English National Opera, English Touring Opera, and Garsington Opera, and earlier in his career he served as assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera and Opera national de Paris. Burton’s previous appointments include Choral Director at the Hallé Orchestra, where he won the Gramophone Choral Award in 2009, and Music Director of the Schola Cantorum of Oxford (2002-17). He was the honored guest director of the National Youth Choir of Japan in 2017. Throughout his career, he has been a passionate advocate for young musicians. From 2020 to 2024 he was Director of Orchestral Activities at Boston University’s School of Music, leading the orchestral program and teaching conducting. He founded a scholarship for young conductors at Oxford, has given masterclasses at the Royal Academy of Music, the Tanglewood Music Center, and Birmingham University, and has been a regular faculty member for the Prague Summer Nights Festival. He founded the Boston Symphony Children’s Choir in 2018. Burton’s composition portfolio includes works performed by the Boston Pops and choirs including The Sixteen, the Choir of New College Oxford and the BBC Singers. The King’s Singers featured a work of his on their 2021 Christmas album, and his carol “Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day” was premiered by the Choir of St John’s College Cambridge and recently received its first American recording by the Choir of Trinity Copley Square. His piece The Lost Words was commissioned by the BSO, was performed at Tanglewood and the BBC Proms in 2019, and was featured by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Born in London, Burton was head chorister of the Choir of Westminster Abbey, studied at St John’s College at Cambridge University, and holds a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the Peabody Conservatory where he studied with Frederik Prausnitz and Gustav Meier.