His previous directorships include Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre National de Lille in France and a groundbreaking 14 years as Music Director of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra.
During his eight years as Music Director in New Zealand, Judd garnered much acclaim for his recordings with the orchestra, including works by Copland, Bernstein, Vaughan Williams, Gershwin and many others.
He brought the orchestra to a new level of visibility and international renown through appearances at the 2000 Summer Sydney Olympic Arts Festival, the 2003 Auckland International Arts Festival, the Osaka Festival of International Orchestras, as well as a specially televised Millennium Concert with Kiri Te Kanawa as soloist. He also led the orchestra on its first ever tour of the major concert halls of Europe, culminating with a debut appearance at the BBC Proms and the Concertgebouw in August, 2005. James Judd's live recordings of Mahler's Symphonies No. 9 with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and No. 10 with the European Community Youth Orchestra received enthusiastic international praise, and his performance of Elgar's Symphony No. 1 with the Hallé Orchestra is still a highly-regarded reference standard among conductors today. A graduate of London's Trinity College of Music, Mr. Judd came to international attention as the Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, a post he accepted at the invitation of Lorin Maazel. Four years later, he returned to Europe af ter being appointed Associate Music Director of the European Community Youth Orchestra by Claudio Abbado, an ensemble with which he continues to serve as an honorary Artistic Director.
Since that time, James Judd has led the Berlin Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic; conducted in the great concert halls of Europe, including the Salzburg Mozarteum and Vienna's Musikverein; and made guest appearances with such prestigious ensembles as the Vienna Symphony, Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, Prague Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Monte-Carlo Symphony Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Flemish Radio Orchestra, and the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg. As opera conductor, he has appeared with the English National Opera conducting productions of Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rigoletto, and Le Nozze di Figaro; and at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival in Rossini's La Cenerentola. James Judd also served as Artistic Director of the Florida Grand Opera from 1993-1996. He made his U.S. opera debut in 1988 conducting Don Giovanni for that institution. With his 14-year tenure as Music Director of The Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, Maestro Judd can easily lay claim to the creation of one of America's orchestral success stories. His musical vision and dynamic leadership have garnered him the title of South Florida's preeminent cultural leader.
The Florida Philharmonic's recordings, an all-Walton program and Mahler's Symphony No.1 including "Blumine," both led by James Judd, have been released on the Harmonia Mundi label to international acclaim. The Mahler CD was named "Recording of the Month" in Stereophile, received the Gold Medal from France's Diapason, and most notably, was awarded the "Toblacher Komponierhauschen" at the Salzburg Festival from the Gustav Mahler Society for the best new Mahler recording of the year world-wide.
He was co-founder of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, which he has led on tours throughout the United States, the Far East and Europe. In North and South America he is a frequent and much-admired guest conductor, having appeared with the orchestras of St. Louis, Montreal, Cincinnatti, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Seattle, Indianapolis, Utah, Vancouver and Ottawa.
