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James Thatcher began his professional career at the age of 16 when he played and studied in Mexico City with his uncle, Gerald Thatcher, former principal hornist with the National Symphony of Mexico. Subsequent instructors have included Fred Fox, Don Peterson, Wendell Hoss, James Decker, Vincent DeRosa and master classes with Hermann Baumann. Mr. Thatcher has been a member of the Phoenix Symphony, the Utah Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Today, he is principal horn of the Pasadena Symphony and the Los Angeles Music Center Opera but principally he is a studio player, a recipient of the Most Valuable Player Award from the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences and "arguably the most often heard horn player in the world" due to his performances on some 70 to 80 films per year for the last 15 years.
Jim has the enviable position of being the favored first horn of multiple Oscar winning composer John Williams performing in such films as Always, Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Sleepers (in which he received an on-screen credit), Nixon, Schindler’s List, JFK, Sabrina, Home Alone I and II, Rosewood, Seven Years in Tibet and The Patriot as well as the fanfare for the 1992 Olympics. He also works regularly with other Hollywood greats Jerry Goldsmith, Randy Newman, John Barry, James Horner and Alan Silvestri to name a few and can be heard as well in the tracks to Glory, Rocketeer, Field of Dreams, Dances with Wolves, Toy Story, Apollo 13, Forrest Gump, First Knight, Hook, as well as Independence Day and the Star Trek movies.
Mr. Thatcher has recently recorded his first solo album, "Now Playing" of which reviewer Chris Huning wrote in the Horn Magazine that "Thatcher shows his supreme mastery of the instrument." Released on the Summit label, this 17 track CD includes Jim’s own transcription of Bach’s Partita No. 1, Five Duets by Brahms (with hornist Amy Jo Rhine), Walter Mays’ Dialogues for Horn and Piano (with pianist Steve Betts) and Four Etudes by Verne Reynolds.
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