James Douglass

As a collaborative pianist, James Douglass has been involved in genres as diverse as chamber music, vocal arts, opera, choral arts, symphonic repertoire, jazz, cabaret, and musical theater.  In 2005, he joined the faculty of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is currently Professor of Collaborative Piano, Director of the Collaborative Piano degrees program (MM, DMA), chamber music coach, and vocal coach. He has also served in the capacities of Keyboard Studies Area Chair and Artistic Director of the UNCG School of Music Collage Chamber Series. Over the course of his teaching career, Douglass has taught courses/private instruction in collaborative piano, introduction to collaborative piano for undergraduates, diction (German, French, Italian), opera history, vocal literature, art song performance, chamber music performance, and piano/strings chamber literature. Previous positions and/or teaching responsibilities have been held at Mississippi College, Occidental College (Los Angeles), The University of Southern California, and Middle Tennessee State University. From 2004 to 2024, Douglass has taught for most summers at the AIMS in Graz summer music program, where he has served as either a coach in the lieder program or as the instructor of the collaborative piano studio. From 2012-17, he was the co-founder and artistic director of the art song division of Greensboro Light Opera and Song, a summer performance program based at UNCG and involving young singers from around the United States.

Currently active as a recitalist, clinician, and adjudicator, his performances as a collaborative pianist have included concerts across the United States, Europe, and China in venues such as Carnegie Weill Hall and the Liszt Academy in Budapest. Broadcasts of his performances have taken place on radio and/or television stations in Los Angeles, Nashville, North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, and Wales National Television.  He has released two recordings with soprano Hope Koehler of the songs of John Jacob Niles (Albany and ASE labels and available through all major online outlets), also with whom he has prepared and edited a volume of previously unpublished songs of Niles. In addition, among several recording projects in process, he has most recently released a recording of the song cycle Das stille Leuchten of Othmar Schoeck with the late mezzosoprano Clara O’Brien for the record label Ablaze.  As a staunch advocate of new/contemporary music, Douglass performs as a regular member of Forecast Music and Blue Mountain Ensemble, both based in the Triad region of North Carolina, both maintaining active schedules of commissioning and performing.