JuliuspWilliams.com
Julius P. Williams Is an award-winning conductor, composer, recording artist, educator, author and artistic director. His career has taken him from his native Queens, New York to musical venues around the globe, and has involved virtually every musical genre. Maestro Williams conducted the inaugural concerts of Symphony Saint Paulia at New York’s Carnegie Hall. He has conducted American orchestras in Dallas, New Haven, Savannah, Hartford, Sacramento, Tulsa, Knoxville, Oklahoma, The Vermont Symphony, The Norwalk Symphony, The Vermont Philharmonic, and Paducah Symphony in Kentucky, The Akron Symphony Orchestra, The Wooster Symphony of Ohio, the Armor Artist Chamber Orchestra, the Connecticut Opera Association and the Washington Symphony Orchestra of Washington, DC. The Tri-C Jazz Festival of Cleveland was opened by Maestro Williams in 1999 with a powerful performance of Duke Ellington’s “Sacred Service”. He has served as Assistant Conductor to Maestro Lucas Foss at The Brooklyn Philharmonic and The American Symphony. In Europe, Maestro Williams has performed and recorded with The Prague Radio Symphony, The Dvorak Symphony Orchestra, The Volvodanksa Symphony of Serbia, The Dubrovnik Symphony of Croatia, The Brno State Philharmonic, The Bohuslav-Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra, and The Music Festival of Costa del Sol, Spain. A prolific composer, Maestro Williams has created dozens of works for virtually every genre of contemporary classical performance, including opera, ballet, orchestra, chamber ensemble, chorus and solo voice, dance, musical theatre and film. His music has been performed by countless symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles around the globe. He has served as Composer-in-Residence of Connecticut’s Nutmeg Ballet Company, which premiered his ballet, “Cinderella”. His “Norman Overture” was premiered by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin Mehta. The opera “Guinevere” was performed at the Aspen Music Festival and at Dubrovnik Music Festival in Croatia. He is composer of the score for the film “What Color is Love?” the score for the play “In Dahomey” and the Cantata “A Journey to Freedom” for the Reston Choral and Festival Orchestra in Virginia and recorded on his Album Somewhere Far Away 2009 on the Albany record label. The Detroit Symphony premiered the moving tribute to the victims of September 11, “In Memoriam” recorded on Albany records. He recently composed the music “Dreams” for the Boston Children’s Choir “raising the roof concert: concert televised on national television and recorded on their 2009 new CD. Maestro Williams has served as conductor-composer of the Connecticut Arts Award for Public Television. His film score for Lifetime TV’s “Fighting for our Future” won the Gracie Allen Documentary Award in 2003. Julius Williams’ discography includes the critically-acclaimed “Symphonic Brotherhood”, a collection of African-American symphonic music, “Shades of Blue” and “The New American Romanticism”, Somewhere Far Away, Places in Time, The American Soloist and Midnight Tolls, all available from Albany Records. Julius Williams has served in the capacity of MusicDirector for The Washington Symphony Orchestra where he conducted the 30th anniversary of the peoples republic of china at constitution hall as well as a celebration at the Chinese embassy later that year. He was also The artistic director of the Music Festival of Costa del Sol, Spain, and the School of Choral Studies of New York State Summer School of the Arts that position lasted eight seasons. In addition to his conducting and composing careers, Williams maintains a demanding schedule of speaking engagements, consulting and academics. A dedicated educator, Williams has served on the faculties of Wesleyan University, The University of Hartford, and The University of Vermont. He has been Visiting Conductor of Orchestra at Skidmore College in Saratoga, NY, Affiliate Artist- Teacher of Composition at Purchase College of the State University of New York, and Co-Director of Videmus Recording Company, and Visiting Associate Professor and Jessie Ball Dupont Scholar at Shenandoah University and Conservatory in Virginia. He is presently Professor of Composition and Conducting at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Julius Williams’ educational consulting and speaking engagements have included, The Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow Russia, and The Artistic Advisory Committee of the Queens Symphony Orchestra in New York, he has served on The Advisory Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts (USA) and the Adjudication Committee for the Fulbright Awards. He has served as Educational Consultant to the Norwalk Symphony in Connecticut and on the Panel of Jazz and Orchestral Music for The Boston Symphony Orchestra. Julius Williams is the author of an article on Duke Ellington (Emerge Magazine, 1999), and is co-author/editor of a vocal anthology on Hall Johnson (Carl Fischer, 2003). Maestro Williams is the recipient of awards for musical and academic achievement including a honorary doctorate from Keene State College in New Hampshire ,The Detroit Symphony “Emerging Composer Award”, The Gracie Allen Documentary Award, The Distinguished Medal of Artistic Achievement of the Ecuador Youth Symphony Orchestra Foundation, The Honorary Distinguished Alumnus Award of Langston University, The National Culture of the Arts Award of the Association of Foreign Language Teachers of New York, he also has received ASCAP Awards in Composition for the past twenty years. In 2009 he was selected as the Faculty Marshall for the Berklee commencement and gave the first faculty Address at the ceremony. Maestro Julius P. Williams has been featured on National Television on CBS News Sunday Morning.
