Julian Clef - pianist
JULIAN
CLEF was born on the 28th July 1990 in the state of Kerala, India. He was
“spotted” in India by Mrs. Linda John who recognised that he had exceptional
talent & needed to be assessed by eminent pianists who could advise on his potential.
He
received no formal piano training until 2006 when he was accepted by Chetham’s
School of Music, in Manchester. Since then he has been studying piano under the
direction of Murray McLachlan. In spite of his limited resources in India, Julian
pressed ahead with the development of his skills and with the help of his
father, undertook many concert performances in front of admiring audiences. Of
particular note was a “piano marathon” when he played at the age of 12 for a
period of 12 hours to promote the issue of peace.
In May
2005, at the age of 14 Julian came to England to perform in the Rotary Young
Musicians Concert in Derby. He took part in the Mansfield Music Festival the
same year and won the trophy for the piano open class.
Very
early in Julian’s career, international concert pianist Benjamin Frith
concluded “Julian has a musical and pianistic maturity well beyond his years.
He gives performances of great beauty, without mannerism or distortion. Already
very experienced, he is totally composed on stage and he possesses a remarkably
relaxed technique with which he brings the music so vividly to life”.
Julian
has recently graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music with a B.Mus
(Hons) Degree & is now studying in the RNCM for his Masters with Professor
Dina Parakhina. He has also recently returned from Prague after a successful
concert at the Dvorak festival.
He has
performed in many venues around India & across the UK including Buckingham
Palace, St. Martin in the Fields & the Foundling Museum in London, Leeds
College of Music, Royal Northern College of Music and St. David’s Hall in
Cardiff & the Pump room in Bath. He has attended Chetham’s International
Festival for Pianists for the past five years and in September 2007 he visited
Norway to perform in the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival and in the Edvard
Grieg Museum at Troldhaugen. He gave solo recitals in Hamburg in 2009, 2010 and
2011.
He has
appeared as soloist with Nottingham Youth Orchestra at the Albert Hall,
Nottingham, with the Heisenberg Ensemble at St. Andrew’s University. Julian has
benefitted from lessons and Masterclasses from leading international concert
pianists including Bernard Roberts, Peter Donohoe, Bruce Morrison, Noriko
Ogawa, Yonty Solomon, Leon McCauley, Nadia Lasserson, John Lill and Colleen
Athparia. The highlight of 2012 thus far was an invitation to Julian in July to
have Masterclasses from the legendary Andras Schiff at Beethoven Haus in Bonn,
Germany. This culminated in Julian performing at a concert in the great
master’s house.
Amongst
his other appearances, Julian has been delighted to perform as guest pianist
with the highly-regarded Mansfield-based Cantamus Girls’ Choir (directed by
Pamela Cook MBE), the twice-gold World Choir Olympics champions.
He has taken
part in and won prizes in many competitions. Julian won the EPTA (European
Piano Teachers’ Association) UK Piano Competition in 2007, the 2008 Beethoven
Junior Inter-Collegiate UK competition held in London by the BPSA (Beethoven
Piano Society of Europe) and the William Mathias Festival competition in 2009.
In 2010
he was the winner of the RNCM Concerto auditions which enabled him to perform
the BARTOK Concerto No. 2 with the RNCM Orchestra. Julian won the RNCM Gold
Medal in 2011.
In
September 2011 he performed at the Rising Stars series in Canmore, Canada and
in the Gift of Music series at High River near Calgary, Canada where he was
very well received. In March 2012 Julian performed the Rachmaninov No.2
Concerto to great acclaim with Berkshire’s Crowthorne Symphony Orchestra. He
appears with Nottingham Symphony Orchestra in November 2012.
