Pope Playing Piano

Julian Clef : A Pianist from Kerala

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. 

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