James Woodhall Recordings

James Woodhall is a composer, conductor and pianist. He graduated from the University of Surrey with a First-Class music degree, specialising in composition and was awarded both of the composition prizes during his studies. An exchange programme with the University of North Texas enabled him to spend a year studying there and he wrote and staged his first musical, as well as having performances of his music given by the University Orchestra. Upon returning to the U.K., he continued to study at Surrey and was awarded a Masters in Composition. James was selected to represent the University at the Park Lane Group’s Composer’s Symposium and his piece was performed at London’s Festival Hall. He has written a great deal of music for the schools he has worked in including choral pieces and musicals. James has also written new musicals which have been staged at the Wycombe Swan, the Speen Festival and the Stables Theatre, Milton Keynes.

James was a finalist in the Berkeley Ensemble’s New Cobbet Prize in 2017 and his piece was performed at the Forge in Camden, receiving warm praise from the ensemble and Michael Berkeley. He won the No Dice Collective’s Call for Scores and they played his piece ‘The Clockwork Crocodile’ at the Anthony Burgess Centre in Manchester.

In 2016 he founded the Cold Light Ensemble which he composes for and directs from the piano. This fuses jazz trio with string quartet and their crowdfunded album was released in 2019 after performances at St John Smith’s Square and the PizzaExpress Jazz Club in Soho. Recent choral pieces have been sung at Waltham Abbey and by other churches around the UK and as far away as New Zealand and the USA. James’ piece ‘The Wasteland’ was performed at the Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate to launch a new exhibition based on T.S. Elliot’s seminal modernist masterpiece. James was a finalist in the Rocky Mountain Chamber Choir’s Call for Scores 2023 and their recording of his piece ‘When Darkness Descends’ has led to requests for the score from around the world and performances in South Korea, Germany and in the U.S.A.