James Cuddeford is currently concertmaster of Hong Kong Sinfonietta. He studied Violin Performance at the Royal Northern College of Music and Composition at the University of Manchester. His principal teachers were Yehudi Menuhin in violin, and Karlheinz Stockhausen and György Kurtág in composition. He has won prizes in a series of important competitions including the First Prize at the 1996 Charles Hennen International Competition in Holland.

Cuddeford has frequently appeared at major international festivals and prestigious halls as a soloist and chamber musician. He has performed concertos with orchestras including the Camerata Lysy Switzerland, BBC Scottish National, Jena Philharmonic Germany. As a highly active and renowned interpreter of contemporary music, Cuddeford has given numerous world premières. He has worked with many of the most important composers of our time, including Penderecki, Xenakis, Birtwistle, Smalley and Dutilleux. At age 15, he was the youngest finalist in the BBC Young Composer of the Year, and the following year the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra commissioned and premiered his first major orchestral work.

Cuddeford joined the internationally acclaimed Australian String Quartet in 1998 and has lectured in violin at both the Elder Conservatorium and the Australian Institute of Music. He has also recorded for different labels including ABC Classics, Tall Poppies, Melba Recordings. He plays on a violin made by Nicolò Gagliano in 1769.