James Helgeson is a composer based in Berlin. He is a professor at the Barenboim-Said Akademie, where he served as Dean from 2024 to 2026.
He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music before completing a bachelor’s degree at Oberlin College and Conservatory. He holds two doctoral degrees: the first from Princeton University, where he worked on Renaissance theories of music and poetry, and the second in Music Composition from Royal Holloway, University of London. He has taught at Cambridge, Nottingham, and Columbia.
His current work encompasses music, literature, and philosophy. He is a founding member of the AGOSTO / artist collective.
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Some recent performances of his work:
(Photos by James Helgeson and Joseph Pearson, all rights reserved.)