About
Composer / Dramatist
Education
Columbia University, Bachelor's of Arts:
Music & Computer Science
Notable Performance Venues
The DiMenna Center (Manhattan, New York City)
National Sawdust (Brooklyn, New York City)
Cankarjev Dom (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Hidden Valley: Institute of the Arts (Carmel Valley, California)
Chiesa di San Giuseppe (Alba, Italy)
Lorimer Chapel (Waterville, Maine)
Trinity Episcopal Church (Seattle, Washington)
Musical Theatre Directing Roles
In the Heights (Music Director, Columbia Musical Theatre Society)
Fun Home (Asst. Music Director, Barnard-Columbia Theatre Department)
Fame (Asst. Music Director, CMTS)
The Varsity Show (Asst. Rehearsal Pianist)
Honors
2025, Premiere of "String Trio I" with inštitut .abeceda
2024, Premiere of "Cello Concerto" with Urban Megušar, Slovenia
2023, World Premiere of John and David: A Painted Musical, accepted as an Honor's Thesis with Columbia University Department of Music, New York City
2022, Music Broadcast on Performance Today to National US Radio of "Early Loves" feat. Cindy Wu and Drew Petersen, California
2022 TEMPO Ensemble Call for Scores Winner
2021 New Musicals Inc. Award for New Musical Theatre Work
2020 Commission from Peter Frajola, Oregon Symphony Concertmaster
2019 Robert Scandrett Opus 7 Award for Best Choral Composition
Artist Biography
James Pecore is a composer, music director, and performer based in New York City. To create artistic works grounded in joy, catharsis, and the human heart, James collaborates with musicians, visual-artists, filmmakers, and creatives from around the world. James Pecore loves telling stories with music, and the shared magic that art creates between us. His favorite flowers are white Easter lilies, and his favorite scent, maple butter.
The son of a carpenter and a nurse, as well as the little brother of an art historian, Pecore sees music as a way of walking together with both our past and our future. An avid performer and pedagogue, James teaches piano lessons with Natalia Huang Piano Studios in Manhattan and Greenwich School of Rock to keyboardists ages five up to fifty-five.
A gay Catholic working alongside his partner, trans-activist and visual artist Darren Sharapov, James writes music in a variety of styles: classical, pop, rock, musical theatre, jazz, and more. Pecore's eclectic music has been performed internationally, in such venues as Castle Bled in Slovenia, National Sawdust in Brooklyn, Trinity National Church in Seattle, Lawrence Chamber Music Festival in Wisconsin, and Hidden Valley Music Seminars in California.
As a composer, James Pecore has studied Music at Columbia University with Peter Susser, Maestro Jeffrey Milarsky, Georg Friedrich Haas, and more. Pecore has also studied musical theatre with Lisa Rothe and Anna Jacobs, playwriting with Andy Bragen, and literary analysis with Erik Gray.
Fractured yet tactfully arranged together, James Pecore composes music as a mosaic—beauty coalescing out of brokenness—purpose, out of pain.
Mentors
Mr. Domenic Salerni (Violinist, the GRAMMY-Winning Attacca Quartet)
Ms. Anna Jacobs (Musical Theatre Songwriter, NYU & NYYS)
Dr. Georg Friedrich Haas (Columbia University, Composition Faculty)
Dr. Peter Susser (Columbia University, Theory Faculty)
Mr. Nick DiBerardino (Curtis Institute of Music, Faculty)
Dr. Ira Taxin (The Juilliard School, DMA and Faculty)
Dr. Jordan Kuspa (Yale School of Music, DMA)
Staff Positions
The Two-Time GRAMMY-Winning Attacca Quartet (SONY), Grant Writing
On Site Opera (Manhattan, NYC), Grant Writing
Reed-Yeboah Fine Violins (Manhattan, NYC), Research
The Windmill Factory (Brooklyn, NYC), Production Intern
Notable Collaborators
Institût .abeceda (2020-2025 Composer in Residence and Curator)
Pianist Drew Petersen (2022)
Violinist Cindy Wu (2022 Emerging Composer's Intensive)
The Aizuri Quartet (NYYS 2021-2022)
The New York Youth Symphony (2020-2022 Composer Fellow)
The Estrella Consort (Alba Music Festival 2022)
Broadway Actors Heath Saunders and Roe Hartrampf (NYYS 2021)
Violinist Grace Huh & Cellist Soomin Kim (Columbia-Juilliard, Spring 2022)
Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble (Fall 2021)
Hub New Music (Summer 2021)
Beo String Quartet (Summer 2021)
Violinist Peter Frajola (Oregon Symphony Concertmaster)
