ABBA

Arranger, composer and violinist who started playing at nine years of age and attended the Royal College of Music, where he studied under the watchful eyes of Leonard Hirsch and Bryan Kelly. He is the great nephew of composer and conductor, Benjamin Britten.

In 1983, he became a member of the Philharmonia Orchestra of London. Other groups with whom he has worked include The Atticus Ensemble, The City of Rochester Symphony Orchestra, The Composer Resource Ensemble, and the Philharmonia Violin Quintet.

One of his earliest recordings was 1990’s Les Miserables: The Complete Symphonic Recording.

His arrangements of Antonin Dvorak’s “Songs My Mother Taught Me”, Vittorio Monti’s “Csardas”, and Sergei Rachmaninov’s “Hungarian Dance” appeared on the 1994 CD, The London Violin Sound.

In 1995, he appeared on the Philharmonia’s recording of the soundtrack from The Big Country. He arranged all nine tracks on 1995’s The London Viola Sound, featuring the forty-eight violas of The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

On 30^th October 1999, Adele Anthony and Gil Shaham performed his arrangement of “Sweet Georgia Brown” on A Prairie Home Companion. He played on the soundtrack of Hotel Splendide in 1999.

On 5^th March 2004, Gil Shaham performed his arrangements of George Bizet’s music from Carmen, George Gershwin’s “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess, Vittorio Monti’s “Csardas”, Nicolo Paganini’s “Caprice No. 9 in E, Op. 1”, Astor Piazzolla’s “Tango Suite” and “Sweet Georgia Brown” at Wigmore Hall. The program also included the world premiere of Julian’s original composition, “En coulisses”.

In 2005, Julian and Rosemary Furniss arranged music for the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles. His “Virtuoso Transcriptions for Violin and Doublebass” and arrangements of Gershwin’s “It Ain’t Necessarily So”, Paganini’s “Caprice No. 9” and Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Cheremushki Galop” were included in the program of La Jolla SummerFest August 2005. On 8^th September 2005, he performed “Dedyushka” at the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Florence Hall.

Trumpeter Alison Balsam performed several of his arrangements on her 2006 album, Caprice. He arranged twenty “grooves” from various genres for the Philharmonia to record under the baton of Allan Wilson at Abbey Road Studios. Cellist Andrew Hines and violist Deborah Lander included his “Partita for Viola and Cello” on 2006’s Viola Vibes.

In 2007, he rang in the new year as the host of the Philharmonia’s January podcast. He arranged “Amazing Grace” for a February concert that marked the 200^th anniversary of abolition at Holy Trinity on Clapham Common. On 8^th August 2007, Cho-Liang Lin performed his “Tales from The Magic Flute for Four Violins and Contrabass” at Sherwood Hall in San Diego, California. Cho-Liang also performed his arrangement of Gershwin’s “It Ain’t Necessarily So” on the soundtrack of 4.

The Philharmonia Violin Quintet performed his arrangements of “It Ain’t Necessarily So”, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Serenade” from Don Giovanni, Piazzolla’s “Il Retrato di Alfredo Gobbi” and Shostakovich’s “Galop” on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune on 25^th September 2007. On 1^st October 2007, they entertained with an evening of traditional jazz at the Red Violin Festival in Cardiff, Wales.

Cellist Natalie Clein performed Julian’s arrangements of Sir Edward Elgar’s “La Capricieuse, Op. 17”, “Chanson de matin, Op. 15, No. 2”, “In Moonlight”, “Romance, Op. 62”, “Salut d’amour, Op. 12” and “Sospiri, Op. 70” on her album, Elgar: Cello Concerto.

Happy New Year! Julian was once again chosen as the host of the Philharmonia’s first podcast in 2008. On 9^th February 2008, pianist Jenny Trew and violinist Sali-Wyn Ryan performed his arrangement of Piazzolla’s “Libertango” at All Saints Oystermouth Swansea. Several musicians at Hochschule fur Musik Karlsruhe interpreted his arrangements of Dvorak’s “Slawischer Tanz”, Sergei Prokofiev’s “Walzer” und Maurice Ravel’s “Pavane pour une Infante defunte” on 2^nd April 2008. On 2^nd May 2008, Natalie Clein and pianist Kathy Stott performed his arrangements of Elgar’s “La Capricieuse, Op. 17”, “In Moonlight” and “Salut d’Amour, Op. 12” at Cadogan Hall as part of their Celebrity Recital Series.

His arrangement of Piazzolla’s “Death of an Angel” was appended to his “Tango Suite”, morphing it into “Suite for Four Violins and Bass”, and received its world premiere at La Jolla SummerFest on 1^st August 2008. On 14^th August 2008, bassist Mark Dresser and violinists David Chan, Michelle Kim, Cho-Liang Lin and Elena Urioste performed his “Carmen Fantasy” at La Jolla Cove. It also received an airing at the 2008 Oxford Chamber Music Festival, courtesy of Priya Mitchell, Daniel Rowland, Sascha Sitkovetsky and Karolina Weltrowska, in the Holywell Music Room.

Alison Balsam performed his arrangement of “Libertango” at the Last Night of the Proms in 2009. On 13^th August 2009, his re-workings of Jules Massenet’s “Meditation” from Thais and “Sweet Georgia Brown” were performed at SummerFest Under the Stars in San Diego, California.

He conducted a masterclass and workshop at Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical Academy on 29^th January 2010. On 19^th February 2010, his “Carmen Fantasy” and “Don Giovanni’s Lustige Streiche” were included in a faculty recital at Rice University.

On 11^th January 2011, Leila Josefowicz was the soloist when the Philharmonia performed Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen’s “Concerto para Violino e Orquestra”, Bela Bartok’s “Musica cordas, percussao e celesta, Sz 106”, and Ravel’s “Bolero” and “Ma mere l’Oye (suite)”. Julian did his own solo turn on 5^th March 2011, tackling Mozart’s “Violin Concerto No. 5” with The City of Rochester Symphony Orchestra at the Central Theatre in Chatham. On 13^th March 2001, he performed a chamber recital with The Atticus Ensemble at St. Nicholas Church in Otham. Alison Balsam and I Musici di Roma interpreted his arrangement of Oskar Lindberg’s “Gammal fabodpsalm fran Dalarna (Alter Hirtenpsalm aus Dalarna)” on 14^th April 2011.

Some of Julian’s aforementioned arrangements can be heard on the compilations, Best Cello 50, Best Cello 100, Classical 2009, Essential Cello, Heart Warming Cello, and The London String Sound.

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