Biography

James Fellenbaum enjoys an extraordinarily diverse career as a conductor, equally at home with Symphonic music, Chamber Orchestra repertoire, Pops, Ballet, Opera, Choral-Orchestral, and Film with Live Orchestra.

Fellenbaum is the Director of Orchestras at the University of Tennessee, a position he has held since 2003. He oversees and conducts the Orchestra Program, which includes the Symphony Orchestra – winner of the 2023 American Prize in orchestral performance, large ensemble program – the Chamber Orchestra, founded in 2004, the Contemporary Music Ensemble, founded in 2006 and dedicated to music written since 1950, and UT Opera Theater, where he oversees orchestral administration, and has conducted past productions such as Don Giovanni, La Traviata, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, The Turn of the Screw, Sweeney Todd, Susannah, Cosi fan tutte, Little Women, and more.

Orchestral performances at UT have grown in size of ensemble, depth of repertoire, and quality of performances, resulting in invitations to perform in state-wide and regional concerts, receiving critical acclaim such as “…the UT Symphony has developed, at an amazing pace, into an ensemble that rivals the professional orchestras in many communities.” Additionally, the Orchestra Program been chosen for two different PBS recording projects, performing as the classical soundtrack for Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People, narrated by Sissy Spacek, and part I of The Truth about Trees.

Fellenbaum is the Resident Conductor of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 2006. He conducts a variety of concerts with the KSO, and has lead the orchestra in a wide array of repertoire, ranging from the complete Brandenburg Concerti to orchestral music from Wagner’s The Ring Cycle. His performances on the Masterworks and Chamber Classics series have garnered such praise as “…a remarkable performance, one that was clean, focused, and razor-sharp in its control, yet passionate and warm in its display” and “one of the most compelling performances of a Beethoven symphony I have yet heard in Knoxville.” As a frequent conductor on the Knoxville News-Sentinel Pops series, he has collaborated with such renown artists as Kenny G, Chris Botti, The Texas Tenors, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Jim Witter, Ann Hampton Calloway, The Indigo Girls, and The Midtown Men, along with tributes to Bob Denver, The Beatles, Elvis, as well as the popular Cirque de la Symphonie. He also excels in Film with Live Orchestra concerts, including recent presentations of The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Mary Poppins. As part of the KSO’s Education and Community Partnership Program, he conducts performances throughout the city of Knoxville, as well as regional communities in east Tennessee and southwest Virginia. He also conducts the educational programs, including Side-by-Side concerts with local high school orchestra programs, as well the KSO’s annual Young People’s Concerts, which are seen by 10,000 elementary students each year.

Since 2010, Fellenbaum is also the Music Director of the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Association. The KSYOA consists of 6 orchestras, lead by the Youth Orchestra, which he conducts. In March of 2018, the Youth Orchestra was selected to compete in the National Orchestra Festival in Atlanta, sponsored by the American String Teachers Association, where they won 1st Prize in the Youth Orchestra Division. The Youth Orchestra was also awarded 3rd Prize in The American Prize competition–Youth Orchestra division, for their 2017-2018 season. In June 2020, the Youth Orchestra took their first-ever tour to Europe, and performed in Prague and Vienna. He has been a guest Music Director of the Symphony of the Mountains Youth Orchestra (TN), and was previously the Music Director of the Suburban Youth Symphony in Illinois. He has conducted the American Youth Philharmonic, Texas Honors Orchestra, and has led many regional and all-state orchestras, as well as hundreds of workshops and clinics.

In 2023, Fellenbaum became a regular guest conductor with the longtime symphonic show, Bugs Bunny at the Symphony and became Principal Guest Conductor in 2025. He has led the show with orchestras around the world, including recent engagements with FILMharmonique in Montreal, CA, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, CA, the San Francisco Symphony, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, AUS, the l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, SUI, the Nashville Symphony, TN and the famous Hollywood Bowl Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl. In fall 2023, James became the Music Director of the Appalachian Ballet Company, and succeeded Sande MacMorran as the principal conductor of the annual The Nutcracker productions with the ABC and the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra.

The 2025-2026 season marks James Fellenbaum’s 8th year as Music Director of the Brevard Philharmonic, NC. Concerts include Classical, Holiday, Pops, and Music in the Schools programs, and have been met with critical and popular acclaim.

He was invited to the 2006 First International Gennady Rozhdestvensky Conductors Competition, where he was one of 20 conductors chosen to compete out of 112 applicants from 26 countries around the world, and finished as a Finalist – the only American to reach that round.

---

Education

• MM, Orchestral Conducting and Violoncello Performance – Northwestern University (1994)
• BM, Violoncello Performance – James Madison University (1991)