Our Faculty

Background

James Budinich is a Croatian-American composer writing music inspired by minimalism, Croatian folk traditions, and American popular music. An artist who welcomes collaboration in his process, he composes for performances, films and installations, using both acoustic instruments and electronic sound design.

Recent collaborations include new works for Sydeboob Duo (Without the Gold That It Takes, 2025), movement artist Waeli Wang (Sunder: Before the Sky and Earth, 2024, and Her Spine, the Mountains, 2023), Kate Dreyfuss ((semi)concerto for violin and electronics, 2024), and Pigeonwing Dance (The Choreography of CRISPR, 2022; 5x8, 2021; and Plexus: a work in knots, 2020).

He has worked with ensembles such as Sydeboob Duo, Ensemble Illyrica, Ensemble Mise-En, F-PLUS, and the Raleigh Civic Chamber Orchestra. Recent performances include the Ear Taxi Festival, Pulsar Festival, Mise-En New Music Festival, and others across the United States and Europe. His work has been supported by New Music USA, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, the American Scandinavian Foundation, and Works & Process at the Guggenheim.

Budinich currently serves as a lecturer in composition and music creation technologies at Binghamton University. He received a PhD in music composition from Duke University in 2022 and was in residence at Copenhagen’s Royal Danish Academy of Music as a Fulbright Scholar in 2020-21.

For recordings and more information, vist www.jamesbudinich.com.

Education

• PhD, Composition, Duke University
• MA, Composition, Duke University
• MM, Composition, Binghamton University
• BA, Music, College of the Holy Cross

Research Interests

• Acoustic and electronic composition
• Composing for dance
• Cross-disciplinary collaboration
• Danish New Simplicity and Postmodernism

Awards

• New Music USA Creator Fund Award for Resonant Body: Sound Through Movement, 2024
• Fellowship to Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, 2023
• Fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, 2023
• William Klenz Prize in Music Composition for Third-Millennium Heart, 2021
• Fulbright Fellowship to the Royal Danish Academy of Music, 2021
• American Scandinavian Foundation, Fellowship to Denmark, 2021