The most recent North Carolina Symphony concerts featuring James Ehnes were the finale of the 2022/23 Classical season, where he performed the Brahms Violin Concerto.

Recent orchestral highlights for James Ehnes include the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony, NHK Symphony and Munich Philharmonic. Through the 2023/24 season, Ehnes continued as Artist in Residence with the National Arts Centre of Canada and as Artistic Partner with Artis–Naples. During this season, he made debuts with Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tonhalle Zurich, and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Alongside his concerto work, Ehnes performs regularly at the Wigmore Hall (including the complete cycle of Beethoven Sonatas in 2019/20 and the complete violin/viola works of Brahms and Schumann in 2021/22), Carnegie Hall, Symphony Center Chicago, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Ravinia, Montreux, Verbier Festival, Dresden Music Festival and Festival de Pâques in Aix. A devoted chamber musician, he is the leader of the Ehnes Quartet and the Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society.

Ehnes has an extensive discography and has won awards including two Grammy Awards, three Gramophone Awards, and eleven Juno Awards. In 2021, Ehnes was announced as the recipient of the coveted Artist of the Year title in the Gramophone Awards.

Ehnes began violin studies at the age of five, became a protégé of the noted Canadian violinist Francis Chaplin aged nine, and made his orchestra debut with L’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal aged 13. He continued his studies with Sally Thomas at the Meadowmount School of Music and The Juilliard School, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music upon his graduation in 1997. He is a Member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Manitoba, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and an honorary fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, where he is a Visiting Professor.

Ehnes plays the “Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715.