James Wilding

Title: Professor of Instruction
Dept/Program: Music - Theory & Composition
Phone: 330/972-8359
Email: wilding@uakron.edu

Biography

A composer-pianist from South Africa, James Wilding was born in Johannesburg in 1973 and received his Bachelor of Music (distinction in performance) and Master of Music (distinction in composition) from the University of Cape Town. His musical mentors in South Africa were Stewart Young (piano), Neil Solomon (piano), and Peter Klatzow (composition), and he has worked with George Crumb, Wilfrid Hiller, Vladimir Viardo, and Lamar Crowson. Besides a substantial body of solo piano pieces, Wilding's works include: The Continents and Barbaric Dance for orchestra; Greek Goddesses for piano and symphonic wind ensemble; Mayan Rites for two pianos and percussion; a chamber cantata Lot's Wife; a wind quintet; two string quartets; a string trio; piano duos with violin, cello, double bass, English horn; and various chamber music for vocal and instrumental ensembles. He was selected to participate in the Internationales Jugendfestspieltreffen in Bayreuth, Germany, where he co-wrote an opera that was released on CD. He won the Oude Meester Prize for South African composers and was commissioned to write a string trio. He received scholarships from SAMRO (Southern African Music Rights Organisation) for post-graduate study in Cape Town. He received Graduate Assistantships from Youngstown State University and Kent State University and is a Ph.D candidate at the latter institution with Thomas Janson. James Wilding's work has been performed in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Germany, Holland, France, Britain, Canada, and the USA; and published by The Foundation for the Creative Arts and UNISA (University of South Africa). His compositions have been broadcast on Fine Music Radio (Cape Town), SAFM (Johannesburg), and KKGO (Los Angeles). His Etude for solo piano was prescribed for the UNISA-Transnet International Piano Competition. His piano piece, Poem, was prescribed for the Hennie Joubert National Competition in South Africa. James Wilding is an active pianist, performing regularly as a soloist and chamber musician, recently having completed a 24-concert tour of Germany. Mr Wilding is Lecturer in theory and composition at the University of Akron.