Performer & Educator

Soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and former member of Neave Trio, Toni James, has attracted wide critical acclaim. “An outstanding musician” (New York Times) and “a chamber music pianist of the highest calibre” (MusicWeb International), Toni has been praised for the “personality of her interpretation” (New York Times) and lauded as “poised to join the ranks of the finest” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). Loved by audiences and critics alike on two continents, Toni’s recordings won acclaim from Gramophone, MusicWeb International and Fanfare Magazine.

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Signed to Sapinkopf Artist Management, Toni featured on Robert Sherman’s seminal Young Artist Showcase on WQXR radio NYC and Cathy Fuller’s WGBH Boston Radio LIVE show. She has performed extensively throughout the US, Canada, UK and Europe, including Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Kodak Hall at Eastman Theater, Jordan Hall, Rolston Recital Hall, Shalin Liu Performance Center, Bing Concert Hall and Copley Symphony Hall. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at international festivals including Banff, Heifetz, Mainly Mozart and La Jolla. Her collaborators include some of the finest high-profile classical artists including violinist Rachel Barton Pine, pianist Jeremy Denk, Conn-Selmer Roster Artists, and principals of the major American symphony orchestras (Cleveland, Indianapolis, Greenville, Los Angeles, San Diego). 

A frequent collaborator with today’s composers, Toni was featured at the New West Electronic Arts and Music Organisation International Festival. Newly commissioned works and premieres include music by former Chicago Symphony Orchestra composer-in-residence Augusta Read Thomas, Grammy-Award winner Billy Childs and Daniel Dorff. She is also pianist with one of Scotland's foremost new music ensembles Scottish Voices.

A top prize-winner in the Moray, Scottish International Piano Academy and International Emmanuel Durlet competitions, Toni earned top honours in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s competitions: Mozart Memorial Concerto Prize, Governor’s Recital Prize and Bach Prize.

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Toni is a Doctor of Musical Arts, which she earned from the world-famous Eastman School of Music in Rochester New York where she also received the Postgraduate Certificate in College and Community Teaching. At Eastman she received the School’s highest honours for both performance and teaching. She was also the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s youngest-ever recipient of the Bachelor of Music Performance Degree with First Class Honours, aged just twenty. 

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Appointed Professor of Piano, Performance and Pedagogy at San Diego State University School of Music and Dance in 2015, Toni was awarded the University’s Exceptional Service Award. She was later appointed Head of Academic Quality & Standards for the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences at the University of Liverpool, where she taught classical music performance and pedagogy as well as launching the inaugural Women in Music conference. 

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She has been Visiting Professor at the Music Departments of Furman University and Point Loma Nazarene University, as well as a guest teaching artist at Bravo! International Music Academy, Hausmann Chamber Music Program, Asheville Area Piano Forum and the Moltopiano International Festival at St Andrew's University.

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Toni has delivered access, development and progression in music for children, young people and adults of all ages and backgrounds as Director of the Piano Academy at San Diego State University Community Music School and San Diego Summer Music Institute.

Upcoming projects include a disc of songs by Antón García Abril with Scottish soprano Alison McNeill.