Recently, James founded and directed the University of Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra while also conducting and coaching productions at the University of Minnesota Opera Theatre. Previous positions include assistant conductor of the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra and Apollo Chorus of Chicago; music director of the University of Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, the Tallahassee Sinfonietta, and the Florida State University Orchestras; and guest conductor for the 5th Wave Collective, the Northwest Symphony Orchestra (IL), the Northern Symphony Orchestra (MN), and the Jacksonville University Orchestra. James has also led performances with the Berlin Sinfonietta, the Miami Music Festival Orchestra, the Florida State University Philharmonia and Symphony Orchestras, the Alice Millar Chapel Choir and Brass Ensemble, the Northwestern Summer Chorus, and several ad hoc orchestras and ensembles.

James began his musical studies in piano with Myrtle and Peggy Edwards and violin with Aaron Krosnick in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. He later studied piano with Sylvia Wang at Northwestern University, where he earned two bachelor’s degrees in computer engineering and orchestral studies, and with David Kalhous at Florida State University, where he received his M.M. in orchestral conducting under the tutelage of Alexander Jimenez. James earned his D.M.A. at the University of Minnesota, studying with Mark Russell Smith. Other conducting teachers and mentors include Victor Yampolsky, Benjamin Zander, Stephen Alltop, Matthew Mehaffey, Emily Threinen, Mallory Thompson, Donald Nally, Robert Hasty, Tiffany Lu, Markand Thakar, Arthur Fagen, Hugh Wolff, Kenneth Kiesler, Julius Williams, Mark Shapiro, Mark Gibson, Chris Younghoon Kim, Apo Hsu, Adrian Gnam, Gregory Pritchard, and Philip Greenberg.

Enthusiastic about music outside of the standard Western orchestral repertoire, James has given world and regional premieres by Roydon Tse, Aaron Spotts, Justin Giarrusso, Bryan Lin, Shawn Okpebholo, Richard Ayres, among others. At the 2017 FSU Festival of New Music, James led a performance of Louis Andriessen’s Zilver in the presence of the composer and in 2025, he assisted both the composer and the conductor in the premiere of the chamber version of Bright Sheng's Dream of the Red Chamber. At Northwestern, James founded and directed the ReZenance Music Society, dedicated to the performance and promotion of East Asian music, and led annual orchestral concerts for Lunar New Year Celebrations. At Florida State, James was assistant director and principal erhu player of the FSU Chinese Music Ensemble and began studying the guqin with Haiqiong Deng. In 2018, he guest conducted the orchestra of the 5th Wave Collective, a Chicago organization dedicated to the performance and promotion of music by womxn composers.

From 2019 to 2021, James co-edited a critical performing edition of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring with Clinton F. Nieweg and engraved the full set of score and parts from scratch, now published by Serenissima Music.