James Blachly is a Grammy®-winning conductor dedicated to enriching the concert experience by connecting with audiences in memorable and meaningful ways. He serves as Music Director of the Experiential Orchestra and the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra, and is a versatile guest conductor in diverse repertoire with orchestras. Blachly’s performances have been praised by The Guardian for “catch[ing] the music’s sweeping, sonorous energy,” while Musical America applauds his “sense of finesse and reverence.”
Blachly’s recent and upcoming guest conducting engagements include the New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic, and WDR Funkhausorchester. Other recent appearances include the Williamsburg Symphony, Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic, Malaysian Philharmonic, Spokane Symphony, Portland Symphony (ME), Danbury Symphony, and Odyssey Opera (Boston), as well as performances at Trinity Church Wall Street, Roulette, National Sawdust, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center. In recent seasons, he has collaborated with soloists Daniel Hope, Julia Bullock, Paul Jacobs, Michelle Cann, Simone Porter, Charles Yang, Dashon Burton, Helga Davis, Sarah Brailey, Andrés Cárdenes, Peter Dugan, Michael Chioldi, Karen Kim, Andrew Yee, and more.
With the Experiential Orchestra (EXO), Blachly has conducted the works of Arvo Pärt at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, invited audiences to dance to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, sit within the orchestra at Lincoln Center, and engage with Symphonie fantastique and Petrushka with circus choreography at The Muse in Brooklyn. During his most recent season, he led the Experiential Orchestra in a subscription concert at the Phillips Collection, in an immersive performance of Strauss’s Four Last Songs with cellist Andrew Yee and soprano Sarah Brailey, and gave the New York premiere of Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto with soloist Curtis Stewart. With Curtis Stewart, he release the world premiere recording of Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto as part of an album on Bright Shiny Things titled American Counterpoint, which also includes music by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson and Stewart. American Counterpoints was released in 2024 to critical acclaim on NPR, New York Times, and elsewhere, and was nominated for two Grammy® Awards in 2025.
James Blachly’s reputation as a powerful advocate for under-celebrated composers was sealed with his world premiere recording with EXO of English composer Dame Ethel Smyth’s 1930 masterpiece The Prison. Released on Chandos Records, The Prison won a 2021 Grammy Award and was widely acclaimed by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Gramophone, San Francisco Chronicle, Financial Times, The Guardian, and many others. Blachly is the editor of the new Wise Music Group critical edition that has not only made modern performances and this recording possible, but has also contributed to renewed interest in Smyth’s work. This was the first-ever Grammy Award for music by Smyth, who lived from 1858-1944 and struggled her entire career to have her music judged on its merits rather than on the basis of her gender.
With the Johnstown Symphony, James Blachly has conducted the orchestra at the Flight 93 Memorial for the 20th Anniversary of 9/11, in a former steel mill in a concert that was featured on Katie Couric’s America Inside Out, and dramatically expanded access to the symphony throughout the region. During his first eight seasons with the Johnstown Symphony, Blachly has emphasized long-term relationship building with community leaders, expanding youth programs and education initiatives including annual side-by-side performances with the youth orchestra, initiating a youth concerto competition, and holding auditions for local talent to perform with the symphony on “Johnstown’s Got Talent” pops concerts.
Blachly has dedicated himself to using music to bring the Johnstown community together, creating an annual Martin Luther King Jr. concert and a Juneteenth concert in partnership with the NAACP, from which he received a commendation. During the 2023-24 season, he continues his innovative programming, bringing the symphony to the legendary War Memorial for the first time for a subscription concert, bringing Carnegie Hall’s Link Up education initiative to Johnstown for Young People’s Concerts, and expanding the JSO’s series of concerts in unconventional spaces. Over the course of his directorship, concerts are frequently sold out, both individual and season ticket sales have increased by more than 50%, and individual giving has increased 80%, a testament to the energy and enthusiasm that has defined his tenure.