James Hewitt is active in both early and contemporary music, and becoming well known for his engaging personal style and improvisatory prowess. He performs throughout Europe, both solo and in ensembles including Concerto Valiante, Yiddish baroque ensemble Simkchat Hanefesh, Pera Ensemble (baroque and Turkish instruments), and the Scroll Ensemble, which specialises in programmes inspired by improvisatory practices of the baroque, featured in the Leipzig Improvisation Festival, and finalist in York International Early Music Competition 2015. He has participated in several recordings with Contrasto Armonico, associated with an extended project to record all of Handel's Italian Cantatas, and has broadcast on Dutch Radio 4. He has lead historical improvisation workshops in Den Haag, Weimar, and Poland. He also works with contemporary improvisation, with the Brendan Faegre Edge Ensemble, which explores edges of improvisation and composed music and was Gaudeamus ensemble in residence 2014- 2015, and the DaMu Collective, in which all the performers improvise with music, dance and movement, text/voice, and objects. He also performs in theatre projects such as the Klingon Opera U, in which he played a newly made instrument, ‘tin dach’, and a dance performance by Matteo Graziano based on Stockhausen Tierkreis. His compositions include works for Cambridge University Opera Society (Moses and Pharaoh), Ely Cathedral Choir, the Nieuw Ensemble, Modello Ensemble, and the Fokker Organ in Amsterdam Muziekgebauw aan't IJ. He has received performances at the Cheltenham Festival, Nordic Early Keyboard Festival, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and during the Gaudeamus Interpreter's Competition in Amsterdam. His works will increasingly become available from Parklaan Publications on Tutti Music. He read music at Girton College, Cambridge, and continued his studies at the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague: baroque violin with Pavlo Beznosiuk, and composition with Martijn Padding, Cornelis de Bondt and Guus Janssen. He completed his masters there with research in improvised counterpoint.