James Aaron Hardwick

James “Aaron” Hardwick has worked with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester (Munich Radio Orchestra), Winston-Salem Symphony, Ruebush Brass Ensemble, Brevard Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic, Williamsburg Symphony, Aiken Symphony Orchestra, CICA (Collaborations in Contemporary Art) Ensemble, and Shenandoah Conservatory Symphony, among others. He was a finalist for the 2021 Erno Lányi International Conducting Competition and participated in the 2020 European Union International Conducting Competition. He is an Eastman School of Music Summer Conducting Fellow with the Rochester Philharmonic, and a two-time Conductor’s Institute of South Carolina Conducting Fellow.

Hardwick is also known as an award-winning collaborator and educator developing multiple interdisciplinary projects that aim to revolutionize music performance and reception, including the “Paving the Way” and “We Play Together” projects.” He was named one of Hampton Roads’ “Most Outstanding Music Educators” two years in a row by the Virginia Symphony, was nominated by the Grammy Foundation® and the Recording Academy® as a quarterfinalist for the Music Educator Award in 2014.  In 2011 he received the Distinguished Music Educator’s Award from Yale University.

As a professional violist, he has worked with the New York City Ballet Company, Shenandoah Summer Music Theater, Shenandoah Conservatory Symphony, University of South Carolina (UofSC) Opera, UofSC Symphony Orchestra, Brevard Philharmonic and Aiken Symphony Orchestras. Hardwick is founder and owner of Full Lobby, LLC a company designed to build artistically inspired and diverse concert series for symphony orchestras that includes live performance of video game music, new artists, genres, and voices.  Hardwick is a professional free-lance conductor and the Orchestra Director and an Assistant Teaching Professor of Music at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC.
 

Experience the magic of live orchestral music as J. Aaron Hardwick conducts the Munich Radio Orchestra in an exclusive video game music concert. Click below to explore concert dates, behind-the-scenes content, and special previews of the event.