Julius Williams

Contributing Editor |

Julius P. Williams is an award-winning conductor, composer, recording artist, educator, author and artistic director. Maestro Williams conducted the inaugural concerts of Symphony Saint Paulia at New York's Carnegie Hall. He has conducted orchestras in Dallas, New Haven, Savannah, Hartford, Sacramento, Tulsa, Knoxville, Oklahoma, Vermont, Norwalk, Vermont Philharmonic, Wooster, Akron, Connecticut Opera, and Washington Symphony Orchestra (DC.). 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, Dvorak, Volvodanksa (Serbia), Dubrovnik (Croatia), Brno Philharmonic, Bohuslav-Martinu Philharmonic symphonies. A prolific composer, 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 "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?" and the score for the play "In Dahomey". The moving tribute to the victims of September 11, "In Memorium" was premiered by the Detroit Symphony. 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", "Shades of Blue" and "The New American Romanticism", all available from Albany Records. Julius Williams has served in the capacity of Artistic Director for The Washington Symphony Orchestra, The Music Festival of Costa del Sol, Spain, and the School of Choral Studies of New York State Summer School of the Arts.

He is presently Artistic Director of WorldStage, Inc, a company based in New Hampshire and Geneva, which offers travel and recording opportunities to composers world-wide. Williams has served on the faculties of Wesleyan University, The University of Hartford, and The University of Vermont. He is Co-Director of Videmus Recording Company, and Visiting Associate Professor 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 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 Julius P. Williams has been featured on Public television and on CBS News Sunday Morning.