James Ledger
Composer
James Ledger is an award-winning Australian composer whose music has been performed by leading orchestras, ensembles and soloists throughout Australia and internationally. His first orchestral work, Indian Pacific (1996), inspired by the iconic transcontinental train journey remains a frequently performed work in the Australian orchestral repertoire.
Over the course of his career, Ledger has held residencies with major orchestras, festivals and music academies, and has received commissions from many of Australia's foremost performing arts organisations.
A hallmark of his career has been his collaboration with singer-songwriter Paul Kelly. Their acclaimed song cycles Conversations with Ghosts (2012) and Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds (2019) blend poetry, song and classical music. Both albums received widespread critical acclaim and won ARIA Awards.
Ledger's achievements have been recognised with APRA Art Music Awards for Chronicles (2009), Golden Years (2011) and Viola Concerto (2019). In 2025 he received the prestigious Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize for The Last Thing, a song cycle for soprano and orchestra setting texts by Irish poet Paula Meehan.
He is Chair of Composition at the University of Western Australia and has served as Artistic Director of the WASO Composition Project since 2009.
Forthcoming works include Clarinet Concerto for Ashley Smith and WASO (2026), a cello concerto for Li-Wei Qin and WASO (2027), and a new commission for the Australian National Academy of Music in 2028.