Since 1997 James Bagwell has been Music Director of the May Festival Youth Chorus in Cincinnati, conducting regularly during the May Festival, Carolfest, and outreach concerts throughout the Cincinnati area.  For eight years, he prepared the May Festival Summer Chorus for the Riverbend Music Series, and for two seasons worked with Robert Porco as his assistant for the May Festival Chorus.  

James Bagwell maintains an active schedule throughout the United States as a conductor of choral, operatic, and orchestral literature. He received critical praise for his work as Music Director of Light Opera Oklahoma, conducting three new productions for the 2005 summer festival season, including the company’s debut at the OK Mozart International Music Festival in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and a concert version of La Périchole.  In summer 2005 he led the production of Copland’s The Tender Land as part of the Bard Summerscape Festival.  In October 2002 he premiered Cinderella’s Bad Magic by microtonal composer Kyle Gann in Moscow as part of the Alternativa Festival. Active as a guest conductor, he conducted Rachmaninoff’s Vespers with The Dessoff Choirs in March 2005 in New York City; in 2001 he returned to conduct the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra after his debut in December 1999.  Since 2001 Mr. Bagwell has conducted numerous concerts with the Bard Festival Chorale and the Bard Chamber Players. 

In 2003 Mr. Bagwell was named Director of Choruses for the Bard Music Festival, conducting and preparing choral works during the summer festival at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard, and at Alice Tully Hall in New York. In the 2004-2005 season he prepared The Concert Chorale of New York for concerts with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Mostly Mozart Festival, all in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.  Mr. Bagwell has trained choruses for a number of major American orchestras, including the American Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, and the Asheville (NC) Symphony. He has worked with noted conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Louis Langrée, Leon Botstein, Raymond Leppard, James Conlon, Christof Perick, Jesús López-Cobos, Erich Kunzel, Leon Fleischer, and Robert Shaw.

James Bagwell is artistic director for The New York Repertory Singers, and serves as conductor for the Berkshire Bach Society Chorus and Orchestra. From 1998-2001 he was Artistic Director and Conductor of the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir and the Indianapolis Chamber Singers, a professional ensemble he formed in 1999.  In 2000 he joined the faculty of Bard College where he is Director of the Music Program.  He was most recently named Music Director for the Dessoff Choirs in New York.