James was previously assistant conductor of the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra and Apollo Chorus of Chicago, music director of the Tallahassee Sinfonietta and the Florida State University Campus Orchestra, and has served as guest conductor for the 5th Wave Collective, the Northwest Symphony Orchestra, 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 in violin with the late 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 Master's of Music in Orchestral Conducting under the tutelage of Alexander Jimenez. Other conducting teachers and mentors include Victor Yampolsky, Benjamin Zander, Stephen Alltop, Mallory Thompson, Donald Nally, Robert Hasty, Emily Threinen, 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 orchestral repertoire, James has premiered works by Roydon Tse, Aaron Spotts, Justin Giarrusso, Bryan Lin, 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. 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.

Leading up to and during the COVID-19 pandemic, 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 and available from EMS.