James Buckle
Trombone
One of the UK’s most exciting and gifted young musicians, bass trombonist James Buckle, at the age of twenty-three, became the only brass player in history to win the Royal Over-Seas League Gold Medal, going on to win praise from international soloists such as the baritone Jonathan Lemalu, oboist Nicholas Daniel, and pianist Piers Lane.
A year later he was appointed Principal Bass Trombone of the Philharmonia Orchestra. In the same year John Wilson and Sir John Eliot Gardiner invited him to join respectively Sinfonia of London and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and English Baroque Soloists.
James recently recorded the Kenneth Fuchs Bass Trombone concerto with the Sinfonia of London and John Wilson, receiving 5* critical reviews in major international publications. He has commissioned solo and chamber pieces for the bass trombone and has performed four contemporary concertos with orchestra, including a world premiere.
In 2019, he was appointed Professor at the Royal College of Music, London, having previously been assistant professor to Ian Bousfield at the Hochschule der Künste Bern. He has since built a formidable class of bass trombonists with students working in orchestras both in the UK and abroad. In wide demand as a teacher, he is a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music and has given master-classes at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, RCM, Royal Northern College of Music, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, Universidade de São Paulo, and Wells Cathedral School.
James has played internationally as guest principal with the National Symphony Orchestra, Ireland, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, European Philharmonic of Switzerland, Orchestra of Europe, and San Francisco Symphony, as well as with orchestras throughout the UK. He has performed extensively in the West End and has appeared in several film, TV, game, pop, and classical recordings.
James studied at the Royal Academy of Music, obtaining a 1st Class (Honours) degree and is a former member of both the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and European Union Youth Orchestra. In 2018 he was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.