James Spinazzola

James Spinazzola is an active conductor, ensemble clinician, arranger, and saxophonist. In addition to directing the Cornell wind program, James teaches undergraduate courses in conducting, music theory, and chamber music. He serves as a faculty adviser to CU Winds, a student-driven organization devoted to performing and promoting wind band music.

In 2024, James hosted the Eastern division conference of the College Band Directors National Association, and under his direction, the Cornell Wind Symphony was selected to perform at the 2022 and 2018 CBDNA conferences. The Wind Symphony has commissioned and premiered over 30 compositions in the last seven years, including those by Byron Adams, John Berners, Sydney Guillaume, Kathryn Likhuta, David Maslanka, Christopher Rouse, Dana Wilson, and Mark Winges, among others. The Wind Symphony has premiered James's arrangements of noted composers including Christopher Rouse, Roberto Sierra, Wynton Marsalis, and Patrick Williams; all of which are now published. James has led campus residencies and performances with a diverse collection of preeminent artists including Tania León, Catherine Likhuta, Wynton Marsalis, David Maslanka, Joshua Redman, and Patrick Williams during on-campus residencies. 

James is committed to the intersection of ensemble performance tours and purposeful community engagement. He has led the Wind Symphony on community-engaged performance tours of Cuba (2024), Haiti and the Dominican Republic (2019, 2017), and has developed and sustained partnerships with the National Concert Band of Cuba, the Holy Trinity Music School (Port-au-Prince), and the Haitian roots music band RAM. James's book, Community-Engaged Performance Tours: A Handbook for Ensemble Directors and Educators (Routledge, 2023) presents a guide for ensemble directors and educators interested in leading similar projects. James is currently investigating the use of virtual reality environments to help undergraduate conducting students develop a vocabulary of gestures and motions and experiment with them in a low-stakes setting.

James’s work as an author, arranger, and performer is published by Alfred Music, Boosey & Hawkes, Mark Records, Scarecrow Press, and Subito Press. He has served as visiting director of the Ithaca College Wind Ensemble (2021-22) and has conducted and adjudicated bands, orchestras, and jazz ensembles in the U.S., China, India, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. He has also presented on a diverse collection of topics, from rehearsal pedagogy at the Midwest International Band & Orchestra Clinic to jazz arranging at Shanghai Normal University, to community engagement as part of Cornell's Engaged Speaker series.

James has been a Cornell Engaged Faculty Fellow and has received multiple grants from the Cornell Center for Teaching Innovation, the Cornell Council for the Arts, and the Einhorn Center for Community Engagement. He has earned two grants from the Central New York Humanities Corridor for founding a working group entitled Banding Together, which fosters interactions between college wind ensembles and composers from historically underrepresented populations. Through this initiative, Cornell has partnered with ensembles from Syracuse University and the Eastman Conservatory.

Before his current post, James was an associate professor at the University of Indianapolis and an assistant professor at Tennessee Tech University. He holds degrees from Duquesne University (BS), the University of Colorado (MM), and Louisiana State University (DMA).