James Rubino is a violin performance and music composition major at Ohio University, studying violin with Dr. Marjorie Bagley, and composition with Dr. Mark Phillips. He previously studied with Paul Kantor at the Cleveland Institute of Music and with Deborah Price and Robert Firdman in Columbus, Ohio.

James has received performance awards from Women in Music - Columbus, Young Artists Competition; Columbus Music Teacher's Association Solo Competition; the Worthington Music Club Solo Competitions; and the first prize composition award in the 2006 Women in Music - Columbus, Young Composers Competition.

In his many years of participation in the Chamber Music Connection, James was a four-year CMC Fellow. He was also in the CMC Jazz Institute from its inception in 2003, and studied piano, composition, and improvisation privately with jazz pianist Bradley Sowash.

Prior to his enrollment at Ohio University, James studied composition with Ching-chu Hu at Denison University. His summer programs have included Musicorda at Mt. Holyoke College, Massachusetts, and Charles Castleman’s Quartet Program in Fredonia, New York. In summer 2006, James participated in the Mozart 250th Birthday Anniversary Tour with the Chamber Music Connection in Austria and the Czech Republic, performing with Annie Fullard of the Cavani String Quartet.