James Dorsa is a native of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley. An amateur astronomer, stargazer, and professional dreamer, James spends his free time depicting the vast mysteries and visual radience of stellar phenomena, through musical composition. His piece, Jupiter's Moons for solo harpsichord took first place at the 2008 Alienor Harpischord Composition Competition in Winston-Salem, NC. His recent works include a song cycle: Melting Away to Nothing, with text by former US Poet-laureate Charles Simic, The Tea Party, and Hollywood,a new piece for harpsichord and soprano saxophone. James is currently on the faculty at California State University Northridge in Los Angeles, where he teaches courses in general music education, including: harmony, history, musicianship, and music appreciation. He is working on a new music appreciation textbook dealing strictly with audience response theory.
James Dorsa received a Doctor of Musical Arts in harpsichord from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he studied under Edward Parmentier. He also holds degrees in Performance and Composition from California State University Northridge.