James Orville Fulkerson (born July 2, 1945, in Streator, Illinois)[1] is an American composer, now living in the Netherlands, of mostly stage, orchestral, chamber, vocal, piano, electroacoustic, and multimedia works.
His principal compositional teachers were Herbert Brün, Kenneth Gaburo, Lejaren Hiller, Ben Johnston, and Salvatore Martirano and his principal trombone teachers were Carmine Caruso and John Silber.
In addition, he founded the Barton Workshop in Amsterdam in 1989, an ensemble whose goal is to perform works on the leading edge of contemporary music, including some that are not notated, and has since served as its director and trombonist.
Barton collaborated with many composers, including Nicolas Collins, Frank Denyer, Alvin Lucier, Philip Corner, and Christian Wolff.
It also has given premières of works by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Jerry Hunt, Ernstalbrecht Stiebler, and Galina Ustvolskaya.