James Ehnes has been featured several times as a guest soloist for NCS live concerts. His most recent appearance was for a streaming concert in 2020, performing Beethoven's Septet in E-flat Major.

   James Ehnes has established himself as one of the most sought-after violinists on the international stage. Gifted with a rare combination of stunning virtuosity, serene lyricism and an unfaltering musicality, Ehnes is a favorite guest of many of the world’s most respected conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Marin Alsop, Andrew Davis, Stéphane Denève, Mark Elder, Iván Fischer, Edward Gardner, Paavo Järvi, Juanjo Mena, Gianandrea Noseda, David Robertson and Donald Runnicles. Ehnes’s long list of orchestras he has worked with include the Boston, Chicago, London, NHK and Vienna symphony orchestras, the Los Angeles, New York, Munich and Czech philharmonic orchestras, and the Cleveland, Philadelphia, Philharmonia and DSO Berlin orchestras.
   Recent orchestral highlights include the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall with Gianandrea Noseda, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig with Alexander Shelley, and the San Francisco Symphony with Marek Janowski, as well as his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Lincoln Center in spring 2019. Alongside his concerto work, Ehnes maintains a busy recital schedule. He performs regularly at the Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Montreux, and St. Petersburg’s White Nights Festival. In 2018 he undertook a recital tour to the Far East, including performances in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur.
   As a chamber musician, Ehnes has collaborated with leading artists such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Nikolai Lugansky, Yo-Yo Ma, and Jan Vogler. His Ehnes Quartet, formally established in 2010, has performed across Europe. He is the Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society.
   Last year, Ehnes was announced as the recipient of the coveted Artist of the Year title in the 2021 Gramophone Awards. His “Recitals from Home” series, released in June 2020, have been heralded as being “at the absolute forefront of the streaming evolution.” He has an extensive discography and has won multiple Grammys, an additional Gramophone Award, and a Juno Award, among others.
   Ehnes began violin studies at the age of five, became a protégé of the noted Canadian violinist Francis Chaplin at nine, and made his orchestra debut with L’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal at the age of 13. He continued his studies with Sally Thomas at the Meadowmount School of Music and The Juilliard School and won the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music in 1997. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and in 2010 was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. Ehnes was awarded the 2017 Royal Philharmonic Society Award in the Instrumentalist category.
   Ehnes plays the “Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715.