James is an improvising musician and composer born in Dudley in 1991. Main projects include James Banner’s USINE, Stephanie Lamprea/James Banner Duo and co-curating the monthly improvised music residency Practically Married with pianist Declan Forde at Berlin’s Donau115. James curates and performs in collaborative projects with international contemporary and improvising musicians and has worked with organisations such as PODIUM Esslingen, IMPULS Festival and Berliner Ensemble. He runs an ongoing Call For Pieces for solo bass, presenting new and unperformed works and continually building a community based around composer-performer exchange, and is currently working on TEXTS, a project which commissioned 6 authors to create new works for the Lamprea/Banner duo which will be released in 2022.
As a first generation state educated student and artist from a working class background, James is committed to using his current platform and privilege to widen representation in his own artistic projects, call for equity (especially in artistic development opportunities and higher education) and increase access to adventurous and original improvised music for young people. He is a workshop facilitator with Make The Paint Dance and visiting lecturer in bass, collaborative composition and improvisation at Leeds Conservatoire.
James participated in Adopt a Composer and was paired with Two Rivers Concert Band, a community wind band based in Ilkley West Yorkshire.