Conductor who attended Westminster Choir College of Rider University and after acquiring his master degree, accepted the posts of assistant professor of organ and church music department head at his alma mater. He served as director of music at Princeton Theological Seminary and St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in New York, where he also filled the roles of artistic consultant and organist. In 1982, he helped prepare and publish the Episcopal hymnal.
He became the director of the American Boychoir in 1985 and remained with them for the next twenty-six years. In 2000, he was dubbed the Litton-Lodal Music Director, an honour conferred on him by American Boychoir School trustees, Jan and Elizabeth Lodal. He has since been named Music Director Emeritus.
In 2001, he became the choirmaster at Washington National Cathedral, where he directed the Cathedral Choir of Men and Girls. He also worked as college cantor, conductor and visiting professor at St. Olaf College, where he led the St. Olaf Cantorei.
Other groups with whom he has worked include the Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cathedral Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the New York Vocal Consort, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Vienna Philharmonic.
In 2002, he was invited to conduct the AmericaFest honor choir at the 6th World Symposium on Choral Music, which was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was asked to perform similar duties at the American Choral Directors Association Convention in 2004 in Nashville, Tennessee.
In 2005, he became the conductor and interim music director of the Nassau Presbyterian Church Adult Choir, which brought him back to Princeton, New Jersey. He was selected as a conductor for the Second International Boys and Men’s Choral Festival, hosted by Hradec Kralove and Prague in the Czech Republic during the summer of 2008.
He retired at the end of the 20-13 season from his position of the choral director for the American Boychoir Alumni Chorus.
A few CDs that bear his name include Messe Basse, On Christmas Day, and Voices of Angels: Christmas Favorites from The American Boychoir.
American Boychoir recordings
O Come All Ye Faithful (Frederick Oakeley/John Francis Wade)
Ocaso HR002 (CD: On Christmas Day)
Conductor – James Litton
Music – Cathedral Symphony Orchestra and New York Vocal Consort
Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Litton
- http://www.boychoirs.org/choirmasters/current/dir016.html
- http://www.amazon.com/Voices-Angels-Christmas-Favorites-American/dp/B000I5YSFK/ref=sr_1_13?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1295902038&sr=1-13
- http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=James+Litton&x=12&y=13#/ref=sr_pg_2?rh=n%3A5174%2Ck%3AJames+Litton&page=2&keywords=James+Litton&ie=UTF8&qid=1295902038