James Pattinson

James Pattinson was born in Nottingham where he took up the violin at twelve years old. Five years later he gained a place at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester to study with Steven Wilkie, and later take his Masters with Yossi Zivoni. Since leaving the RNCM in 2004 James has worked with many of the UK's leading symphony orchestras including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (including a recent tour to Prague), the Hallé, BBC Philharmonic, English National Opera, English National Ballet, and Manchester Camerata. He has performed under conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Mark Elder, and Vassily Sinaisky. He also leads a string quartet with whom he gives regular recitals across the UK, Europe, and as far afield as Singapore. James is in demand as a session musician, recording with artists such as Katie Melhua, Corinne Bailey-Rae, and the Ting Tings, and has recently been seen in the background playing on ITV's Lost in Austen, and on the film The Duchess. James has led the orchestra of Clonter Opera for the past two years, as well as guest-leading a number of orchestras in the North-West, and is delighted to have been invited to lead the Chandos Symphony Orchestra for this evening's concert. James is playing on a Nicolas Gagliano violin of c1760, which incidentally, was stolen whilst he was on tour in Scotland in December 2007, but thankfully reappeared in a shop, in Glasgow, earlier this year.