Aaron James

organ

Aaron James is the Director of Music at the Toronto Oratory of St Philip Neri, and a sessional lecturer in organ at the University of Toronto. An alumnus of the Eastman School of Music, he holds both a PhD degree in musicology and a DMA degree in organ, along with the Performer’s Certificate in organ. He was the 2011 winner of the National Organ Playing Competition of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and has won numerous other prizes for his organ playing, including first place in the Florence and Stanley Osborne Organ Competition and the Howard Fairclough Organ Competition; he was also a finalist in the 2012 Franz Schmidt International Organ Competition (Kitzbühel, Austria). He is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and a past president of RCCO Toronto Centre; he currently serves the College as national Chair of Examinations. Most recently, he is the editor of the Parish Book of Motets (CMAA, 2022), a printed collection and online resource designed to provide a repertory of accessible polyphony for small parish choirs. His writing has been published in various scholarly and general-interest publications in print and online, including the Journal of the Alamire Foundation, Early Music, Antiphon, New Liturgical Movement, Organ Canada, Sacred Music, The Lamp, Oxford Bibliographies Online and Grove Music Online.