Meet the Music Director

James Knox Sutterfield has conducted ensembles across the East Coast and in Italy, Austria, and the Czech Republic. A passionate educator, his work with students from primary school to university reflects his commitment not only to performing established repertoire but also to exploring and promoting lesser known works and new music. In addition to conducting The Kent Singers, Knox is Music Direct or of Florilegium Chamber Choir in Manhattan and Associate Artistic Director of Inspire: a Choir for Unity.

Knox’s previous posts include Director of Music at Trinity-Pawling School, Director of the Marquand Chapel Choir at Yale Divinity School, and Assistant Conductor of the Yale Camerata, which he prepared for Helmuth Rilling, Gilbert Levine, David Hill, and Erwin Ortner. He was also a founding member and Assistant Conductor of the chamber choir Concordiae, in Greenville, South Carolina. A finalist in the 2011 ACDA National Student Conducting Competition, Knox was Assistant Conductor of the Furman University Men’s and Women’s Chorales as well as Student Conductor of the Furman Singers. During a semester at the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy, Knox sang with and guest-conducted Insieme Vocale Vox Cordis.

An active choral performer, Knox has sung under Masaaki Suzuki, Helmuth Rilling, David Hill, Nicholas McGegan, Simon Carrington, and Erwin Ortner and with many orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Yale Philharmonia, Juilliard415, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and Greenville Symphony (SC).

Knox holds a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from Yale University—where he studied conducting with Marguerite Brooks, Jeffrey Douma, David Hill, and Masaaki Suzuki and voice with Judith Malafronte—and a Bachelor of Music, summa cum laude, from Furman University—where he studied conducting with Hugh Floyd and Edvard Tchivzhel and voice with Trudy Fuller and Jill Feldman.