Julian Clef

Julian was born in Kerala, India and started playing the piano when he was six. He commenced formal piano studies at sixteen with Murray McLachlan at Chetham’s School of music in Manchester and subsequently studied at the Royal Northern College of Music for a Bachelor of Music (Hons). After that he studied with Dina Parakhina at the RNCM for a Master of Music degree and with Ronan O’Hora and Martin Roscoe at the Guildhall School of Music. He has also had masterclasses from Peter Donohoe, Andrei Gavrilov and Andras Schiff. Sir Andras Schiff selected Julian to be in the Building Bridges series for young pianists in the 2015-16 season and gave recitals as part of that in Berlin, Brussels, Weimar and New York. As a recitalist, Julian has performed in many venues in the UK and abroad, including Buckingham Palace, Leeds College of Music, St David’s Hall in Cardiff, NCPA in Mumbai and Dvorak Prague International Music Festival. Last year Julian gave two concerto performances in London appearing as a soloist in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 1 with the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican. Julian has won many prizes including the RNCM Gold Medal (2011), theConcerto auditions at the RNCM (2010), William Mathias Festival Piano Competition (2009), Beethoven Junior Inter-Collegiate UK Competition (2008) and European Piano Teachers Association UK Piano Competition (2007). Julian’s future engagements include performances in Manchester, Worksop, India and Germany.