ProfessorIfor James (30 August 1931 – 23 December 2004) was ahorn player and teacher, numbering among his pupils many future Principal Horns and horn professors at British music schools.

James was born inCarlisle, England; his father was a notedcornet player and his mother a famoussoprano, Ena Mitchell. He began playing cornet in abrass band at age four and by seven he was playing paying gigs as a trumpeter. He also played theorgan and was assistant organist inCarlisle Cathedral. Taking up the horn in 1951, he studied first privately and then underAubrey Brain at theRoyal Academy of Music.^[1] His professional horn playing career began with theHalle Orchestra from 1953 to 1955, then theRoyal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra from 1955 to 1961, and was much in demand for chamber recitals and solo work.

Moving to London, he played as principal horn with many orchestras and chamber groups. He was appointed professor of horn at theRoyal Academy of Music and was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (FRAM) in 1969. He was principal horn of theEnglish Chamber Orchestra, and horn player in thePhilip Jones Brass Ensemble, with whom he toured the world and made over 30 recordings. He was also appointed professor for horn at theRoyal Northern College of Music (Manchester). His final teaching appointment was as professor for horn at theStaatliche Hochschule für Musik, Freiburg, Germany.

His musical taste was eclectic and he was for some time the principalconductor of the famousBesses o' th' Barn Brass Band, winning the 1978BBC Brass Band of the Year Competition with them.

He was known among his students for sending them on curious errands such as paying hotel bills. He also had a puckish sense of humour. One former student recalls an incident where the two of them were at traffic lights in James' open-topped Morris Minor when a pretty girl walked alongside. James encouraged the younger man to "pinch her bottom as the lights go green, and I'll drive off". Needless to say when the young man did as bidden, James stayed put and turned to grin at the girl.

Welsh to the core, he famously averred that he only played the horn because he could not sing.

His former students include over 100 professional musicians, over 30 of them currently principal horn players with orchestras in numerous countries. Nine are professors at music colleges, two are the principals of German music colleges and a further six are noted soloists.

At the 2005 British Horn Festival tributes to James were read out byBarry Tuckwell,Michael Thompson and others, and a commissionedPortrait by former student Tony Randall was premiered by an octet of former students includingSimon de Souza (professor of horn at Birmingham Conservatoire),Jeffrey Bryant (professor of horn at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama),Michael Thompson (Aubrey Brain professor of horn, Royal Academy of Music) andFrank Lloyd (professor of horn at theFolkwang Hochschule and president of theInternational Horn Society).

• Profile of Ifor James inThe Horn Player, journal of the British Horn Society, 2005.
• Profile from the International Horn Society
• obituary fromThe Daily Telegraph

• 1931 births
• 2004 deaths
• British classical horn players
• Welsh classical organists
• Academics of the Royal Academy of Music
• Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music
• Fellows of the Royal Academy of Music
• People educated at Carlisle Grammar School
• Musicians from Carlisle, Cumbria
• 20th-century classical musicians
• 20th-century British musicians
• 20th-century organists
• 20th-century British male musicians
• Academic staff of the Folkwang University of the Arts
• British male classical organists

• Use dmy dates from March 2025