James Maxwell is a composer of concert music and music for contemporary dance, theatre, film, and media, and is Co-Artistic Director of Restless Productions. His music has been presented by leading organizations including Aventa Ensemble, Continuum New Music, Music on Main, Redshift Music, Standing Wave, Vancouver Pro Musica, Vancouver New Music, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

 

He has worked collaboratively with choreographers Claire French, Helen Walkley, Simone Orlando, and Joe Laughlin, theatre artists Mallory Catlett, Alex Ferguson, and Caleb Johnson, filmmakers Alex Williams and Alison Beda, and visual artists Kathleen Ritter and Hadley+Maxwell. Recent concert works include Eight or Nine, Six or Seven, commissioned by Instruments Of Change and Music On Main, and That thing, over there (pointing) for 18 electric guitars, commissioned by Redshift Music for Vertical Orchestra 2017.

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Upcoming and in-progress works include a new collaboration with choreographer Helen Walkley, a double-concerto for cello, harp, large ensemble, and soundscape, for Couloir (Ariel Barnes: cello, Heidi Krutzen: harp) and Turning Point Ensemble, a new work for the Piano Erhu Project, and a new collaboration with Vancouver's Fight with a Stick.

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James is also an active researcher, developer, and entrepreneur in the field of computer applications for interactive music composition. His doctoral work explored the design and development of computer-assisted composition tools, with a focus on using intelligent, adaptive systems as compositional “collaborators.” In 2016 he co-founded Spliqs Intelligent Media Inc., a startup dedicated to the development of interactive tools for music creation and collaboration.