Julian Wachner

Department of Performance (Schulich School of Music)

Biography

Julian Wachner is one of North America’s most exciting and versatile musicians, sought-after as both conductor and composer. This season, he makes New York City Opera history having been selected as both conductor [With Blood, With Ink by Daniel Crozier; Zolle by Du Yun] and composer [Evangeline Revisited] at the company’s annual VOX festival of contemporary opera. He appears on the world’s leading stages including engagements with The Philadelphia Orchestra, New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, Portland Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, Toledo Symphony, Music Academy of the West, Calgary Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Handel & Haydn Society, Pacific Symphony, and L’Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal. In 2008 he was named Music Director of the GRAMMY® award-winning Washington Chorus, in residence at the Kennedy Center. In addition, he is professor of music at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montréal, Québec where he serves as Principal Conductor of Opera McGill.

Julian Wachner's original music has been described as “bold and atmospheric” by the New York Times, “jazzy, energetic, and ingenious” by the Boston Globe, “highly enjoyable, touching, clever, and inspiring” by the Deseret News, and “upbeat, jazzy, glittering, and poignant” by the Providence Journal. His complete catalogue of music, containing over 80 works, is published by E. C. Schirmer. He is also an award-winning organist and improvisateur. At the Spoleto Festival USA, his improvised finale at his solo recital led one reviewer to report that “this stupefying wizardry was the hit of the recital, and it had to be heard to be believed.” As a collaborative pianist, Julian Wachner has twice toured South America with countertenor Daniel Taylor and the Theatre of Early Music. Wachner’s recordings are with the Chandos, Naxos, Atma Classique, Arsis, Musica Omnia, and Titanic labels.

Born in Hollywood, California, Julian Wachner began his musical education at age 4 with cello and piano lessons at the University of Southern California; was a boy chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Buffalo, New York, and studied composition and improvisation under Dr. Gerre Hancock while enrolled at the St. Thomas Choir School in New York City. He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University’s School for the Arts where his teachers included David Hoose and Lukas Foss.

In 1990, at the age of twenty, he was appointed University Organist and Music Director of Boston University’s Marsh Chapel where he initiated an annual festival of contemporary music and formed the Boston Bach Ensemble, a period-instrument orchestra and choir. He earned the Fellowship degree from the American Guild of Organists and won the S. Lewis Elmer Award for the highest national scores on the Guild’s Associate exam. During his tenure at Marsh Chapel, he also served as Assistant Professor of Sacred Music at the Boston University School of Theology teaching courses in liturgy, Bach studies, music theory, organ improvisation and conducting. While at Boston University, Wachner began a long association with Tanglewood serving on the teaching staff of the Young Artists Vocal, Orchestral and Composition Programs, the latter of which he was the director from 1999-2002. His decade of professional activity in the greater Boston area included guest performances with every major organization in town including conducting The Boston Pops, The Handel and Haydn Society, The Cantata Singers, Opera Boston, OperaLab, The Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, The New England Philharmonic, and Emmanuel Music; and music directorships with The Back Bay Chorale and Orchestra (1996-2002), The Boston Bach Ensemble (1995-2002), the Red House Opera Group (Summer 2002), the Providence Singers (1996 – 2006) and of Marsh Chapel at Boston University (1990-2001).

In addition to his musical activities, He is certified to teach Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® classes in French and English, is a professional trained chef, and enjoys white water rafting in his free time.