James grew up in Stillwater, MN, just outside St. Paul. He began his music studies at age six, excelling at piano and choir throughout his youth. He attended the Preparatory Program at the Macphail Center for Music in Minneapolis, MN, then earned a Bachelor of Music in Composition from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, OH. While in Oberlin, James spent a year interning with experienced recording and mastering engineer Tom Bethel at Acoustik Musik, Ltd. James returned to Minnesota after school to work with Executive Producer Michael Barone on the public radio program, "Pipedreams."
In August of 2000, James moved to Los Angeles to attend the Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television program at the University of Southern California. After earning his certificate, he remained in LA, where he has gone on to score several independent film projects, and to produce several CDs. In January of 2004, he became the Technical Director for public radio's "Marketplace Money," a weekly personal finance program. As TD, James has oversight of all audio content that airs on the show. He began to apply his recording and mixing knowledge to film sound projects beginning in June of 2006. He has since had the opportunity to record production sound and do mixing/sound design for a number of interesting projects. James was nominated for an LA Weekly Award for his first-ever theatrical sound design of Mutineer's Lie With Me, adapted designed, and produced Mutineer's audio play The Miller's Ghost, and did sound design and original composition for Mutineer's productions of Ditch, Shaked & Speared: The Afterplays,The Mill, and The Woodpecker.
James currently lives in Seattle, WA with his wife, Jessica, their daughter Cady, their son Daniel, a dog, and two cats. Check out his web site at www.jamesrichter.net