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, Boston Arts Academy Theatre, Huntington Theatre, and Old South Church

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 wrote a new 7-minute piece for dance, 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 provides 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.