James Burnham

Violin has always been a soulful pull, it's all I ever knew, growing up: first violin came at two and lessons started at four, I wasn’t much for theory. Being born into a family of violin players, there was a lot of pressure, but I loved violin as soon as I first set eyes/ears. I also love playing guitar so from then on into my teens I played violin, guitar, and bass, made some friends and formed bands, played and gigged the Hare & Hounds at 13, and had the best fun in Birmingham with my mates! Very different from concert stage I was being prepped for, my style of playing is different... Spent a great time learning studio engineering/production at fortress5, then started making tunes and went on the road to play, meet, and meld musically with as many great artists as I could. This comes across in my style - a mixture of classical, jazz-fusion and folk, inspired from the music I grew up with and everyone who’s influenced me while playing music with people of all cultures & walks...

I've played with Mystery school ensemble, Ben River, Akahum, Hey Zues, Gnawa UK, Transcendence experience, Chris Cockayne and many more. Some of the gigs, venues and festivals I had the pleasure to play include the Victoria & Albert museum, The Roundhouse, Waveform, Alchemy festival plus many more impromptu performances at venues across the UK. Playing with such a variety of bands from different parts of the globe and styles of music have helped me to become a versatile violinist that is comfortable playing anything from classical, jazz, folk, Indian/Arabic music to electronic dance-fuelled bands like Akahum.