ABBA

Cellist and teacher who attended Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts, Music Academy of the West, and USC, from whence she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in music.

She was a member of the aptly titled Buffum Ensemble in the ‘70s, along with Denyse and Thomas Buffum. On 26^th April 1974, they performed, under the umbrella of the South Bay Chamber Music Society, Inc., a program that ranged from Johann Sebastian Bach and Felix Mendelssohn to modern compositions by members of the ensemble.

It did not take long for Julianna’s career as a session musician to take off. In 1975, she appeared on Gene Harris’s album, Nexus. A year later, she helped Waylon Jennings ask the musical question, Are You Ready for the Country. Some of her recordings with Waylon made the cut on his Nashville Rebel boxed set. In 1978, she collaborated with Terry Callier on Fire on Ice and Ted Gardestad on his album, Blue Virgin Isles. One year after that, she joined a litany of estimable session musicians on Frank Sinatra’s boxed set, Trilogy, and was part of the string section on The Whispers’ eponymous LP.

At the turn of the decade, she teamed up with Googie & Tom Coppola on Shine the Light of Love. In 1982, it was off to Hollywood with Maynard Ferguson. (She also appeared on his Carnival album.) She joined forces with George Duke in 1983 on his Guardian of the Light album and they would reunite eight years later on his CD, Dream On.

Other albums on which she appears include For the Good Times with Dinah Shore and People Get Ready: Songs of Protest from the Warner Jazz Vaults. She has also worked with George Benson, The Eagles, Carole King, and Barbra Streisand, in addition to working on advertising jingles.

In the new millennium, she has focused her attention on teaching a new generation of musicians, instructing young hopefuls at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in Palm Desert, California, and teaching cello at Idyllwild Arts Academy, also located in the Golden State.

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