Biography

James Madrilejo (b. 2003) is a Filipino-American composer and audio engineer whose work plays with allowing mathematical systems, DIY instruments, performer choices and chance to direct his compositional process. He is currently pursuing his MA in composition at Rutgers University with Melissa Dunphy.

James’s recent chamber works have focused mainly on repeating, skipping, and looping musical material, experimenting with the spatial and temporal relationships within it. His piece for the London-based Jasmine Quartet, Cyclic, used live recording and playback to create a layered ‘double quartet’, while Qasida for the Texas New Music Festival CDMX Sessions relied on strict mathematical relationships in pitch space.

James is also interested in time on a larger scale. Faster Horses and Trust the Process — written for early music specialists Larli Davies, Sam Finch, and Ceci Keiffer — contrast modern electronics and contemporary open scores with Baroque and Renaissance performance practice, examining how they overlap through improvisation and player choice.

This interest in historical music frequently overlaps with a love of instrument building and restoration. His ever-expanding collection of restored and homemade instruments includes a bowed psaltery, modular PVC flutes, and too many whistles to count. A restored khene was the focal point of his installation in the "Sounds of Blossom" Festival at Kew Gardens - the fixed media piece, As it is it is, explicitly engaged with the materiality of non-concert instruments, and the implications of composing around an object that squeaks, buzzes, and otherwise makes sounds when it shouldn’t.

In addition to composing with electronics, James has developed a novel form of livestream concert modeled on the work of Jose Maceda. Described by A Young(ish) Perspective as “surreal, bordering on Lynchian,” DIGITAL VILLAGE used a combination of projections, low-latency wired connections and social media channels to deliver an eerie cabaret for for Great Exhibitionists, a student-curated concert series at the Royal College of Music. The piece combined Filipino folklore, Western contemporary music, and internet culture to explore themes of surveillance, connection, and performance.

In 2025, James received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Royal College of Music, where he studied composition with Deirdre Gribbin and Haris Kittos. He is grateful for additional guidance from many others, including Kate Simko, Edwin Hillier, Dani Howard, Nicola LeFanu, George Lewis, and Michael Finnissy. 

When he’s not composing, James works as the assistant engineer at the MGSA recording studio, teaches production in NYC public schools, and runs the multi-genre radio show PANOPTICON on 90.3 The Core, RLC-WVPH, in addition to writing and editing for the Core news team.