CELLIST

Cellist James Ng has performed in concerts across Asia, Europe, the United Kingdom and United States. As a founding member of Bossa Celli, Singapore's premier cello quartet, he has recorded for their debut album The Bossa Collection, and his arrangements for cello quartet have also been premiered by the ensemble.

James has been featured as a soloist with the Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM), OMM-SOTA Orchestra, Penang Philharmonic Orchestra and Selangor Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2019, he performed the Brahms Double Concerto alongside violinist Andrew Ng with the Penang Philharmonic Orchestra, and Joe Hisaishi's Departures with the OMM in 2021. His recordings as solo cellist with the OMM have been released in their digital concert Classics Restrung and recently in 2022 have been aired on Singapore Airlines’ KrisWorld.

Committed to performing regularly as an avid chamber and orchestral musician, James has had the opportunity to work alongside esteemed colleagues at the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Metropolitan Festival Orchestra, New Opera Singapore, Orchestra of Music Makers, Resound Collective, Singapore Lyric Opera, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, The Philharmonic Orchestra, Wayfarer Sinfonietta and Ensemble Virama. He has also recorded contemporary music scored for various local short films, movies and game music.

At the age of seven, James started learning the cello with Chan Ling Chee and subsequently with Laurentiu Gherman, Simon Cobcroft and Csaba Koros. He also served as Principal Cello of the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. At age 16, he was granted a bursary to the Oxford Cello School’s Advanced Performance Course, and was later on also offered a full scholarship to attend the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado studying with Darrett Adkins. He has performed in masterclasses with Alexander Boyarsky, Alban Gerhardt, Louise Hopkins, Ralph Kirshbaum, Shmuel Magen, Philip Sheppard and Wen-Sinn Yang.

James graduated from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore, with full scholarship under the tutelage of Qin Li-Wei. He also studied at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University with Alison Wells for a semester abroad. He then went on to pursue a Postgraduate Diploma in Education from the National Institute of Education, Singapore. In addition to his concert performances, James is also a dedicated educator with more than ten years of teaching experience, sharing his passion for cello playing with young learners and adults.