James Perera

Hailing from Columbus, Ohio, Jimmy Perera joined the New World Symphony as a first-year Bass Fellow in February 2026. 

Jimmy holds a master of music degree from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, studying with Paul Ellison and Timothy Pitts. He also graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of music performance degree in 2023, studying with Barry Green and John Pellegrino. In his freshman year, he was named a winner of the 2020 Ohio State Concerto Competition, performing the first and second movements of the Koussevitzky Double Bass Concerto with the Ohio State Symphony Orchestra. In his junior year, he won the Ohio State Strings Undergraduate Achievement award in 2022. He served as Principal Bass with the Ohio State Symphony Orchestra during his junior and senior years. While at Rice, he served as Principal Bass for two Shepherd School Symphony concerts led by Lidiya Yankovskaya and Bill Eddins. 

Jimmy’s summer festival experiences include the 2025 Verbier Festival Orchestra, where he performed the Mahler Symphony No. 1 bass solo in the final concert conducted by Paavo Jarvi. Jimmy also attended the 2024 Aspen Music Festival. He was a fellow with the Miami Classical Music Festival in 2021 and at the Wabass Institute in Wabash, Indiana in 2023 and 2025. He attended Domaine Forget Academy in 2022 and 2023. Through these experiences, he has worked with soloists Barbara Hannigan, Augustin Hadelich, Garrick Ohlsson, Alexandre Kantarow, Yunchan Lim, Khatia Buniatishvili, Gautier Capuçon, Renaud Garcia-Fons and François Rabbath. 

Jimmy has played with ensembles such as the Columbus Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony and Lexington Philharmonic. 

In his free time, he enjoys playing golf and is an avid speedcuber with a PR average of 13.80 seconds on a standard 3x3 Rubik’s Cube.