About

Artist Biography

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James Pecore is a New York–based pianist, composer, and performer whose work braids his gay Catholic upbringing with a love of theatre and communal ritual. He believes art exists to hold the soul—its joy, grief, doubt, and tenderness—and writes music that invites audiences into that shared emotional space.

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Writing across and between genres—classical, pop, rock, musical theatre, and jazz—James collaborates with musicians, filmmakers, and visual artists to build stories in sound. His music has been performed internationally at Castle Bled in Slovenia, National Sawdust in Brooklyn, Trinity National Church in Seattle, the Lawrence Chamber Music Festival in Wisconsin, and Hidden Valley Music Seminars in California.

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An active music director, performer, and pedagogue, James teaches piano with Natalia Huang Piano Studios in Manhattan and at Greenwich School of Rock, working with keyboardists from early childhood through adulthood.

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James studied Music at Columbia University, where his mentors included Peter Susser, Maestro Jeffrey Milarsky, and Georg Friedrich Haas. He has also studied musical theatre with Lisa Rothe and Anna Jacobs, playwriting with Andy Bragen, and literary analysis with Erik Gray.

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The son of a carpenter and a nurse, and younger brother to an art historian, he thinks of his practice as a mosaic: fractured pieces tactfully arranged until beauty coalesces out of brokenness, and purpose out of pain.