James
Dawson
Composer, Producer, Arranger
About
James Dawson is a composer, producer, and instrumentalist from Cincinnati, Ohio. He studies at Berklee College of Music and will graduate with a Bachelor’s of Music in Contemporary Writing and Production in May 2026. His original compositions and arrangements have been performed at various shows at the Berklee Performance Center, Huntington Theatre, and Berklee’s The Loft.
James is as comfortable writing and arranging for orchestra as he is producing folk and rock music. He is an adept arranger and orchestrator of contemporary, film, and musical theater music. Most recently, he arranged for Berklee’s Singers Showcase: A Sky Full of Stars—The Songs of Coldplay and arranged a suite of music for the Berklee Motion Picture Orchestra.
While at Berklee, James has served as the Director of Finances for the World Music Scoring Association, a student-run organization that seeks to provide opportunities for the Berklee community to learn how to write authentically in musical traditions outside of the Western Classical Tradition.
He is excited to have been selected as the Artistic Operations Intern at the Cincinnati Opera for the 2026 Summer Festival, and will start with the company in May 2026.
Photo by Tom Mott
UPCOMING EVENTS
World Music Scoring association x society of composers concert
April 12th, 2 pm
Old South Church, Boston MA
Berklee’s World Music Scoring Association and Society of Composers present their Spring 2026 Concert featuring new compositions by student composers at Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory.
James serves as the Director of Finances for the World Music Scoring Association, and will premiere a new piece at this concert.
Emily and the galaxy Live
April 18th
Cantab Lounge, Cambridge MA
Emily Sclar and The Galaxy join J-LINE for his Dirty Pop Party tour at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, MA. They will play songs from Emily’s recent EP, Galaxy, as well as crowd favorites by Lindsey Stirling and Noel Pointer.
James plays piano and keyboards for The Galaxy.
BERKLEE motion picture orchestra
Week of April 20th (Date TBA)
Boston MA (Location TBA
The Berklee Motion Picture Orchestra, the largest student-led ensemble at Berklee, returns for their Spring 2026 concert, featuring 10 new arrangements of film scores by student composers.
James’s Night At The Museum Suite will premiere at this concert. The suite is a rearrangement and reorchestration of six cues from Alan Silvestri’s original score for Night At The Museum, written specifically for the Berklee Motion Picture Orchestra.
New Music for dance recital
May 3rd, 7:30 pm
Boston MA (Location TBA)
Details on tickets forthcoming
Composers from Berklee College of Music and choreographers from Boston Conservatory join together to create new pieces in the Dance Composition (CM-333) class, which they will present on May 3rd.
A Toast, a new collaborative dance work with choreography by Julia Zingler and music by James Dawson will premiere at this recital. The choreography is written for three dancers, and the music is written for tenor saxophone, string quartet, upright bass, and drumset. Live musicians will perform on stage alongside the dancers in this piece that examines and interrogates success in one’s own life and with one’s peers and friends.