Thursday, September 2, 2010

Lehman College: 'Award-Winning Composer and Conductor Julius P. Williams to Keynote Lehman's Convocation September 15'


[Julius Penson Williams]

The career of Maestro Julius P. Williams is detailed at AfriClassical.com and at his personal website, http://www.juliuspwilliams.com.

September 2, 2010 | Lehman College
BRONX, NY—Lehman College alumnus Dr. Julius P. Williams, an internationally renowned conductor, composer and scholar, will keynote the College’s Convocation on Wednesday, September 15. The public is invited to attend this free annual event, which celebrates the start of the new academic year. The ceremony begins at 11 a.m. in the Lovinger Theatre.

Born in the Bronx, Dr. Williams’s early interest in music led him to master a number of instruments, including the drums, violin, flute, clarinet and trumpet. Today, he is a prolific composer who has written operas and works for orchestras, chamber ensembles, dance, chorus, musical theatre and film. A classical pianist and composer-conductor, he is also a master of jazz, gospel and popular music forms.

After earning a B.S. in music in in 1977 from Lehman, where he studied with Distinguished Professor of Music John Corigliano, Dr. Williams went on to earn a master’s of music education from the Hartt School of Music. He has conducted at venues throughout the nation and the world, including a performance of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Symphony in Russia. He was the first American judge for the international Rivers Composers Competition in Shanghai, China, and has served on the advisory panel of the National Endowment for the Arts. Dr. Williams also has been on the adjudication committee for the Fulbright Awards and an educational consultant to the Norwalk Symphony in Connecticut.

As music director and conductor of the Washington Symphony Orchestra, Dr. Williams conducted performances at foreign embassies, the National Cathedral and the White House. His compositions, which include “Meditation” for orchestra and “In Memoriam, September 11, 2001,” have been performed by the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony. He is currently a professor of composition and conducting at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

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