James Poe currently studies as a senior at Palo Alto High School. He began learning piano with Lena Grozman and violin with Li Lin when he was 5. From 2012-2015 he studied abroad in Taiwan, continuing his violin studies with Nancy Tsung (宗緒嫻). James has now returned to the Bay Area, where he studies with Wei He and Fang Lei. He also attends the Perlman Music Program, where he studies solo, chamber, and orchestral music with Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, Sean Lee and his former teacher Li Lin.

In 2011, James won first prize at the VOCE Competition for Junior Strings and the Pacific Musical Society Competition in 2012. In Taiwan, he won the Taiwan Academy of Strings Violin Competition in 2013 and 2015, and has performed numerous times with the Academy of Taiwan Strings orchestra at the National Concert Hall in Taipei. Later that year he won first prize at the Schoenfeld International Violin Competition and performed in Hong Kong. Recently, James won first prize at the 2016 Mondavi Center National Young Artists Competition and was a semifinalist in the 2017 Klein International Competition.

In his spare time, James enjoys playing music at local hospitals to comfort elderly patients and providing music for his local church every Sunday. For his service to the community, James has received a 2016 Presidential Volunteer Service Award. Aside from music, James also has a passion for photography and fine art, and has received a 2016 Scholastic Silver National Medal for his recent work.