Composer Julian Grant Talks About His China Years at PSO SOUNDTRACKS

On Wednesday, March 18 at 7 pm, Princeton-based composer and conversationalist extraordinaire Julian Grant tells all­­-or maybe just enough-about his life, travels, and musical adventures in China and Central Asia at a free Soundtracks talk at the Princeton Public Library. While living in Hong Kong, he hosted a classical music radio show. He also lived in Tokyo and, from 2007-10, in Beijing, where he worked with the Beijing New Music Ensemble and attempted to master the yang qin (butterfly harp). This immersion in learning a traditional Chinese instrument proved to be the genesis of a suite of music titled a?"a??a??a?? (Five Generations, One House), a work soon to be given its US premiere by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra.

Julian Grant is a composer, writer, educator, music journalist, and broadcaster. He has composed 20 operas of various lengths and sizes which have been performed by English National Opera, The Royal Opera, Almeida Opera, Mecklenburgh Opera, and Tétè-a-Tétè. He has won the National Opera Association of America's New Opera prize and been nominated for an Olivier Award. Recent premieres include a work for Buskaid Soweto Strings and a new collaboration with pianist Melvyn Tan. His chamber opera with librettist Mark Campbell The Nefarious, Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare, a co-commission with Music Theatre Group and Boston Lyric Opera, premiered in Boston November 2017. He recently composed Jump Cuts for the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and divides his time between New York and Princeton.

To hear the US premiere of Mr. Grant's work performed by Princeton Symphony Orchestra March 21-22 under the baton of Edward T. Cone Music Director Rossen Milanov, order tickets via www.princetonsymphony.org.